Caretakers

Caretakers

Music and lyric by Bill Sutton
©1885 Mad Tom Music

In the time of rising mountains
In the age when life was new,
The trees were the rulers of life on earth
And the world as a forest grew.
But new life found the forest,
And a new life tore the land –
So the dryad came to protect the wood,
To stay the human hand (singing…)

I am the strength of the heart and the root,
I am the soul of the wood.

In the time of ancient mountains,
In an age no longer new,
A man walked into the hardwood grove
With a chainsaw and its crew.
He reached for the crippled oak tree,
And he waved his crew to start,
When a vision leapt from the broken linb
And pierced him to the heart (singing…)

I am the strength of the heart and the root,
I am the soul of the wood.

She was Sun and Moon and Starlight,
She was Earth and Sky and Sea,
She was everything that he’d ever loved,
And all that he wished to be.And she sang of the elder forests,
And she sang of the rustling wind,
And her arms reached out from the jagged bark,
Reached out to pull him in (singing…)

I am the strength of the heart and the root,
I am the soul of the wood.

But the man pulled out an acorn,
And he held it to her eyes,
And he sang to her of birth and life -That even an oak must die.
Then she knew that her tree had withered,
So she turned, no longer strong,
And she passed away while the chainsaw roar
Drowned out her final song (singing…)

I am the strength of the heart and the root,
I am the soul of the wood.

In the night under ancient mountains,
In the night under autumn sky,A man looks down at a rotting stump;
He shakes his head and sighs.
So he kneels to plant the acorn,
And he hears a quiet sound,
A song of joy and the hope of spring –
The new life in the ground (singing…)

I am the strength of the heart and the root,
I am the soul of the wood.
I am the strength of the heart and the root,
I am the soul of the wood.