Changing of the Guards
WRITTEN BY: BOB DYLAN
Sixteen years
Sixteen banners united over the field
Where the good shepherd grieves
Desperate men, desperate women divided
Spreading their wings ’neath the falling leaves
Fortune calls
I stepped forth from the shadows, to the marketplace
Merchants and thieves, hungry for power, my last deal gone down
She’s smelling sweet like the meadows where she was born
On midsummer’s eve, near the tower
The cold-blooded moon
The captain waits above the celebration
Sending his thoughts to a beloved maid
Whose ebony face is beyond communication
The captain is down but still believing that his love will be repaid
They shaved her head
She was torn between Jupiter and Apollo
A messenger arrived with a black nightingale
I seen her on the stairs and I couldn’t help but follow
Follow her down past the fountain where they lifted her veil
I stumbled to my feet
I rode past destruction in the ditches
With the stitches still mending ’neath a heart-shaped tattoo
Renegade priests and treacherous young witches
Were handing out the flowers that I’d given to you
The palace of mirrors
Where dog soldiers are reflected
The endless road and the wailing of chimes
The empty rooms where her memory is protected
Where the angels’ voices whisper to the souls of previous times
She wakes him up
Forty-eight hours later, the sun is breaking
Near broken chains, mountain laurel and rolling rocks
She’s begging to know what measures he now will be taking
He’s pulling her down and she’s clutching on to his long golden locks
Gentlemen, he said
I don’t need your organization, I’ve shined your shoes
I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards
But Eden is burning, either brace yourself for elimination
Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards
Peace will come
With tranquillity and splendor on the wheels of fire
But will offer no reward when her false idols fall
And cruel death surrenders with its pale ghost retreating
Between the King and the Queen of Swords
Copyright © 1978 by Special Rider Music
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The sky is exquisitely clear of today after intermittent smoke since the beginning of September. This morning I took a two-hour walk through the woods, through the beautiful city cemetery, back through the woods, returning refreshed and renewed.
December 8 will be my 16th blog birthday. I'll be going silent until then, reading your blogs but not commenting and not posting anything here.
Here is my first blog post, written on the 36th anniversary of the day R returned from Vietnam. A wise and thoughtful person had suggested that I do something different on December 8 in 2006, that I bring something new to a day that had caused me such pain for so many years. So much has healed since I began blogging.
The last time I took a blog break was in 2011. Looking at the video I took then, it is shocking to see how green everything was. We haven't had any substantial rain since last spring. Many of our trees, deciduous and evergreen, are stressed and some appear to be dying. We did have a rainy spring. I hope that we have our usual month of steady clouds and rain in November.
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Sometimes these Bob Dylan lyrics come to me:
Peace will come
With tranquillity and splendor on the wheels of fire
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Sending love always to blog friends near and far.
