AL STEWART

Timeless Skies

Original

Warmth of a Summer’s night (Alternate version)

While travelling northwards On a back country lane I came on the village Where first I grew And stopped to climb up The hill once again Looking down from the tracks To the grey slate roofs I watched the village moving As the day went slowly by In the fields we lay here My very first love and I Under timeless Arcadian skies Under timeless Arcadian skies The old canal lies Sleeping under the sky The barges are gone to a lost decade On overgrown banks here Lovers' footsteps went by Long before ever the roads were made And in our turn we passed here And carved our names on trees As the days washed by like Waves of an endless sea Under timeless Arcadian skies Under timeless Arcadian skies Time runs through your fingers You never hold it at all til it's gone Some fragments just linger with you Like snow in the spring hanging on I left the village behind in the night To fade like a sail on the darkening seas The shifts and changes in the patterns of life Will weather it more than the centuries And in another village in a far off foreign land The new day breaks out opening up its hand And the sun has the moon in his eyes As he wanders the timeless skies

While driving northwards On a back country lane I came on the village Where first I grew And stopped to climb up The hill once again Looking down from the tracks To the grey slate roofs I watched the village moving As the sun fell through the sky In the fields we lay here My very first love and I In the warmth of a summer's night In the warmth of a summer's night The old canal lies Sleeping under the sky The barges are gone to a lost decade On overgrown banks here Lovers' footsteps went by Long before ever the roads were made And in our turn we passed here And carved our names on trees As the days washed by like Waves of an endless sea In the warmth of a summer's night In the warmth of a summer's night. Time runs through your fingers You never hold it at all til it's gone Some fragments just linger with you Like snow in the spring hanging on I've laid my head down many places since then Of many a city I've drunk my fill The village sleeps on remembering when Like a birthmark I carry it with me still And as I watch the sun set on Paris or LA, The night wind comes in, blowing from far away In the warmth of a summer's night In the warmth of a summer's night