weaving on the loom
Here’s a little song I wrote a while back and recorded with a friend, a fine violinist, out in the fens. Its a fairly lo-fi recording I made myself, which I’ve only just discovered I still have,Its a song about the connections and textures of love and friendship. Its on soundcloud so I’ll post their player and then put the words below. If no player appears then just click on the song title.
silken patternings
The shawl you wear is soft and warm
and, cast about your shoulder,
it wraps around your beauty
as the autumn nights grow colder.
What cloth have we to clothe our souls
against a dark world’s weather?
O take these tangled threads with me,
we’ll weave that cloth together
side by side, by warp and weft
we’ll weave that cloth together
What threads have we between us love
to offer for the weaving?
Some bright with joy, some silver-grey
and some are dark with grieving,
some green and blue as earth and sea,
some soft as cloud and feather,
but side by side, by warp and weft
we’ll weave them all together
side by side, by warp and weft
we’ll weave that cloth together
we bring each other single threads
in joy or sorrow spun
and with a word, a glance,a touch,
our weaving has begun
was ever there a softer bond
or such a treasured tether
as is the one you weave with me
that binds us both together?
side by side, by warp and weft
we’ll weave that cloth together
Whatever colours fleck your thread
the same are seen in mine
but friendship interweaves them both
into a new design;
a common cloth that wraps us round
against the dark world’s weather,
as side by side, by warp and weft
we weave that cloth together
side by side, by warp and weft
we’ll weave that cloth together
The checkered cloth of nights and days
Is threaded through with gold,
it shines within the steadfast gaze
of love that can’t be told
The clothes you wear are soft as silk
and mine are tattered leather
but still our souls are clothed as one
in cloth we weave together
side by side, by warp and weft
we’ll weave that cloth together
single threads in joy or sorrow spun
Malcolm Guite 