Forsaken Gardens Peter Hammill

[Verse 1]
Where are all the joys of yesterday?
Where, now, is the happiness and laughter that we shared?
Gone, like our childhood dreams, aspirations and beliefs;
Time is a thief, and he ravages our gardens
Stripping saplings, felling trees
Trampling on the flowers, sucking sap and drying seeds
In the midnight candle-light of experience
All colour fades, green fingers grey

[Verse 2]
Time, alone, shall murder all the flowers
Still, there's time to share our plots and all that we call 'ours'
How much worse, then, if we all deny each other's needs
And keep our gardens privately?

[Bridge]
It's getting colder, wind and rain leave gashes;
Looking back, I only see the friends I've lost
Fires smoulder, raking through the ashes
My hands are dirty, my mind is numb
I count the cost of 'I':
"I need to get on, I've got to tend my garden;
Got to shut you out, no time to crave your pardon now"

[Verse 3]
Now I see the garden that I've grown is
Just the same as those outside;
The fences that, erected to protect, simply divide...
There's ruination everywhere
The weather has played havoc with the grass...
Does anyone believe their garden's really going to last?
And in the time allotted us, can any man keep miserly his own?
Oh, is there any pleasure in a solitary growth?