celtic dawn

When The Dark Night Seems Endless

Please Remember Me

The Waves Would Wash My Tears

The Wind My Memory

Prologue Taken from The Book Of Secrets, Prologue serves as an exquisite example of Loreena’s beautiful voice and whilst devoid of lyrics, I will, respectfully, employ this page as an introduction to this my tribute to her and her troubadours. It was a chance encounter on the radio that brought to my attention The Mystic’s Dream and I have since that time, many years ago, been an avid fan and as such given one of my many projects, namely, tributes to the truly gifted ones who have shared

their treasures with us and as one amongst the many, given my own humble abilities, I have made a selection of personal favourites and these I have illustrated, as it were.

To Loreena And Her Troubadours I Can But Say

Thank You

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Caravanserai

This glancing life is like a morning star

A setting sun or rolling waves at sea

A gentle breeze or lightning in a storm

A dancing dream of all eternity

The sand was shimmering in the morning Light and dancing off the dunes so far Away the night held music so sweet so Long

And there we lay until the break of day

We woke that morning at the onward call our camels bridled up, our howdahs full The sun was rising in the eastern sky just as we set out to the deserts cry

Calling yearning pulling home to you

The tents grew smaller as we rode away on earth that tells of many passing days

The months of peace and all the years of war

The lives of love and all the lives of fears


We crossed the river beds all etched in stone and up the mighty mountains ever known beyond the valleys in the searing heat until we reached the caravanserai



What is this life that pulls me far away

What is that home where we cannot reside

What is that quest that pulls me onward My heart is full when you are by my side



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Cymbeline

Fear no more the heat o' th' sun nor The furious winters' rages Thou thy worldly task hast done home art gone And ta'en thy wages Golden lads and girls All must as chimney sweepers come to dust The sceptre learning physic must all follow this And come to dust Fear no more the frown o' th' great Thou art past the tyrant's stroke Care no more to clothe and eat to thee The reed is as the oak

The sceptre learning physic must all follow this and come to dust All lovers young all lovers must consign to thee and come to dust Fear no more the lightning flash nor th' all-dreaded thunder stone Fear not slander censure rash thou hast finished joy and moan All lovers young all lovers must consign to thee and come to dust No exorciser harm thee nor no witchcraft charm thee Ghost unlaid forbear thee nothing I’ll come hear thee Quiet consummation have and renowned by thy grave

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The Mummers' Dance

When in the springtime of the year

When the trees are crowned with leaves

When the ash and oak and the birch and yew

Are dressed in ribbons fair

When owls call the breathless moon in the blue Veil of the night

The shadows of the trees appear amidst the Lantern light

We've been rambling all the night and some time of this day

Now returning back again we bring a garland gay

Who will go down to those shady groves and summon the shadows there

And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms in the springtime of the year

The songs of birds seem to fill the wood

That when the fiddler plays all their voices can be heard

Long past their woodland days

And so they linked their hands and danced round in circles and in rows

And so the journey of the night descends when all the shades are gone

A garland gay we bring you here and at your door we stand

It is a sprout well budded out the work of our Lord's hand

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The Mystic's Dream

A clouded dream on an earthly night

Hangs upon the crescent moon

A voiceless song in an ageless light

Sings at the coming dawn

Birds in flight are calling there where the heart Moves the stones

It's there that my heart is longing

All for the love of you

A painting hangs on an ivy wall

Nestled in the emerald moss

The eyes declare a truce of trust then it draws me far away

Where deep in the desert twilight sand melts in pools of the sky

Darkness lays her crimson cloak

Your lamps will call me home

And so it's there my homage's due clutched by the still of the night

Now I feel you move and every breath is full So it's there my homage's due clutched by the still of the night

Even the distance feels so near


A clouded dream on an earthly night hangs upon the crescent moon

A voiceless song in an ageless light sings at the coming dawn

Birds in flight are calling there where the heart moves the stones

It's there that my heart is longing


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The Old Ways

The thundering waves are calling me home Home to you

The pounding sea is calling me home Home to you On a dark new year's night

On the west coast of Clare

I hear your voice singing Your eyes danced the song

Your hands played the tune t'was a vision before me We left the music behind and the dance carried on as we stole away to the seashore

We smelt the brine felt the wind in our hair With sadness you paused suddenly I knew that you'd have to go

Your world was not mine your eyes told me so

Yet it was there I felt the crossroads of time and I wondered why As we cast our gaze on the tumbling sea a vision came o'er me

Of thundering hooves and beating wings in clouds above As you turned to go I heard you call my name

You were like a bird in a cage spreading its wings to fly

The old ways are lost you sang as you flew and I wondered why The thundering waves are calling me home home to you

The pounding sea is calling me home home to you. The thundering waves are calling me home home to you

The pounding sea is calling me home home to you

The thundering waves are calling me home home to you

The pounding sea is calling me home home to you

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Samain Night

When the moon on a cloud cast night

Hung above the tree tops' height

You sang me of some distant past

That made my heart beat strong and fast

Now I know I'm home at last

You offered me an eagle's wing

That to the sun I might soar and sing

And if I heard the owl's cry

Into the forest I would fly

And in its darkness find you by

And so our love's not a simple thing

Nor our truths unwavering

Like the moon's pull on the tide

Our fingers touch our hearts collide

I'll be a moonsbreath by your side

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She Moved Through The Fair

My love said to me my mother won't mind

And me Father won't slight you For your lack of kind

Then she stepped away from me and this she did say

It will not be long love till our wedding day

She stepped away from me and she moved through the Fair and fondly I watched her move

Here and move there

She went her way homeward with one star awake

As the swans in the evening move over the lake

The people were saying no two e'er were wed

But one has a sorrow that never was said

And she smiled as she passed me with her goods and her gear

And that was the last that I saw of my dear

I dreamed it last night that my true love came in

So softly she entered her feet made no din

She came close beside me and this she did say

It will not be long love till our wedding day

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The Wind That

Shakes The Barley

I sat within a valley green Sat there with my true love

My heart strove to choose between Me old love and the new love

The old for her the new that Made me think on Ireland dearly

While soft the wind blew down the glade and shook the golden barley

Twas hard the mournful words to frame to break the ties that bound us

But harder still to bear the shame of foreign chains around us

And so I said the mountain glen I’ll seek at morning early

And join the brave united men while soft wind shook the barley

Twas sad I kissed away her tears her arms around me clinging

When to my ears that fateful shot came out the wildwood ringing

The bullet pierced my true loves breast in life’s young spring so early

And there upon my breast she died while soft wind shook the barley

I bore her to some mountain stream and manys the summer blossom

I placed with branches soft and green about her gore stained bosom

I wept and kissed her clay cold corpse then rushed o'er vale and valley

My vengeance on the foe to wreak while soft wind shook the barley

Twas blood for blood without remorse I took at Oulart Hollow

I placed my true loves clay cold corpse where mine full soon may follow

Around her grave I wondered drear noon night and morning early

With aching heart when ere I hear the wind that shakes the barley

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Dante’s Prayer

When the dark wood fell before me

And all the paths were overgrown

When the priests of pride say there is no other way

I tilled the sorrows of stone

I did not believe because I could not see

Though you came to me in the night

When the dawn seemed forever lost

You showed me your love in the light of the stars

Cast your eyes on the ocean cast your soul to the sea

When the dark night seems endless

Please remember me

Then the mountain rose before me by the deep well of desire

From the fountain of forgiveness beyond the ice and the fire



Please remember me

Though we share this humble path alone

How fragile is the heart oh give these clay feet wings to fly

To touch the face of the stars

Breathe life into this feeble heart lift this mortal veil of fear

Take these crumbled hopes etched with tears

We'll rise above these earthly cares



Please remember me

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The Parting Glass

Of all the money that here I spent I spent it in good company

And of all the harm that here I’ve done Alas was done to none but me

And all I’ve done for want of wit To memory now I cant recall So fill to me the parting glass Goodnight and joy be with you all

Oh if I had money enough to spend and leisure time to sit awhile

There’s a fair young man in this town that sorely has my heart beguiled

His rosy cheeks and lovely lips alone he has my heart in thrall So fill to me the parting glass

Goodnight and joy be with you all

Of all the comrades that here I’ve had, they’re sorry for my going away

And of all the sweethearts that here I had they wish me one more day to stay

But since it falls unto my lot that I should rise and you should not

I will gently rise and softly call

Goodnight and joy be with you all

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Post Scriptum

Night Ride

Across The Caucasus

Ride on Through the night Ride on


There are visions there are memories

There are echoes of thundering hooves

There are fires there is laughter there's The sound of a thousand voices



In the velvet of the darkness by the silhouette of silent trees

They are watching they are waiting they are witnessing life's mysteries



Cascading stars on the slumbering hills they are dancing as far as the sea

Riding o'er land you can feel its gentle hand leading on to its destiny



Take me with you on this journey where the boundaries of time are now tossed

In cathedrals of the forest in the words of the tongues now lost

Find the answers ask the questions find the roots of an ancient tree

Take me dancing take me singing I'll ride on till the moon meets the sea



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Skellig

O light the candle John The daylight has almost gone The birds have sung their last The bells call all to mass Sit here by my side For the night is very long There's something I must tell Before I pass along

I joined the brotherhood my books were all to me I scribed the words of God and much of history Many a year was I perched out upon the sea The waves would wash my tears the wind my memory I'd hear the ocean breathe exhale upon the shore I knew the tempest's blood its wrath I would endure And so the years went by within my rocky cell With only a mouse or bird my friend I loved them well And so it came to pass I'd come here to Romani And many a year it took till I arrived here with thee On dusty roads I walked and over mountains high Through rivers running deep beneath the endless sky Beneath these jasmine flowers amidst these cypress trees I give you now my books and all their mysteries Now take the hourglass and turn it on its head For when the sands are still tis then you'll find me dead Harken John my word let not these keys be lost The secrets lie within the writers of the past O light the candle John the daylight has almost gone The birds have sung their last the bells call all to mass

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La Serenissima

History written in your stars Unheeded

Your acts before your eyes Unheeded

You dwell within a garden Unheeded

Raised to beauty and splendour Unheeded

Blessed by innocence Unheeded

Granted dominion and responsibility Unheeded

Freewill and choice your conceit

Power in your world hubris and lies

Shackled in prisons of your own creation when freedom and mystery surround you

Beauty in the wing of a butterfly Majesty in the gait of the panther Innocence in the eyes of a child

And yet

Justice do we serve and our sister blesses us in her travails eternal Look into the mirror of your form Cast aside the veil of ignorance and know these as the end of days

Damiana

Portus Lucis Deum [ extract ]

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Breaking the silence

I hear some distant drumbeat a heartbeat pulsing low

Is it coming from within a heartbeat I don't know

A troubled soul knows no peace

A dark and poisoned pool

Of liberty now lost a pawn an oppressors tool

Oh my heart be strong and guide when eyes grow dim

When ears grow deaf with empty words when I know there's life within

A gunfire shatters silence where birds once sweetly sang

A mother cradles a child now dead now death where life began

From the troubled heart of South Africa Nicaragua's festering sore

The turmoil on the streets of China death crying out for more

But oh my heart be strong and guide when eyes grow dim


A change is slow in coming my eyes can scarcely see

The rays of hope come streaming through the smoke of apathy

But oh my heart be strong and guide when eyes grow dim


May the spirit never die though a troubled heart feels pain

When this long winter is over it will blossom once again

A Tribute To Amnesty International

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[email protected]

celtic dawn

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