Musician

Written in 1978 for Bruce Cockburn

There is a photograph
Taken in wintertime
A black and white image
of you,
In a Toronto park
The snowflakes falling
Covering your solitary figure.
You are standing by a bridge
And all around you
Dusk is falling on the city.

Alone among the mountains
Years ago,
A pain in my bones
Sent me walking in the cold
Wintery late afternoon.
Up the mountain
Ice coated
Reservoir gurgling beneath
Dark, sleeping trees.
In the silence
And numbness of my mind
I hear your music
It takes me to your heart
Dissolving the miles.

The summer has turned cold
But here in the concert hall
A crowd has gathered
To hear you sing
Your music embraces this room
Coloring it in subtle tones
Of laughter, pain
Wisdom and tears.
Tears here inside my heart
Fed by the flame of heaven
We have met again.