The Message

Love has never conquered me or turned my soul to tears
Love has never found me, even after all these years
For the message that I gave my love it surely took my heart
Oh how many words were better left unsaid

In the fields are where we both belong
I know my love so well
We walked on lowland pastures
And oh I knew him well

And the fields were where we lived our lives
We sow, we tend, we reap
I watched a life so dear to me
That time had never time to keep

A messenger he came to me and told me it was time
All the parish farmhands, all men young and in their prime
Were taking arms today at noon against the band of thieves
They want my John to lead them in the fight

Each spring it brought us our delight
The new leaves growing clean
Each morning filled with promise as
Our fields they turned to green

And the peace of quiet summer days
In sunshine and in shade
In all we were delighted
With love of all we made

I took the message to my John, though great it was my fear
He stopped and then he kissed me and brushed away my tear
He wanted to be counted, to be the best of men
But a hero brings no comfort to my days

A dream so quickly turns to dust
And leaves behind no shell
I breathe but oh I sorrow
My pain I cannot tell

One life is bitterly exchanged
For peace in other lives
One death it lays like winter
On me, for I survived

Love has never conquered me or turned my soul to tears
Love has never found me, even after all these years
For the message that I gave my love it surely took my heart
Oh how many words were better left unsaid

Written for Resolution.

Bonnie told me that a friend of hers had stopped for lunch in a field entrance and been inspired to write a song. I imagined myself sitting in a the car in a field entrance and found myself looking in the mirror and seeing a woman in a long skirt carrying a basket across a field to her husband.

This song then came out of the idea that if the price of victory in war is the death of one soldier, then for a wife, children, parents, friends - the price was too high.

It reflects the fact that one can simultaneously feel a great sense of love and loss, but also anger at someone who has put their ideals so high that they have left you to face life alone. So the verses in italics were sung lyrically by Sally, while the other verses were sung in a harder tone by Bonnie.

There is no point in being a dead hero, but who's to say that life has a more important point.