For The Roses

I heard it in the wind last night

It sounded like applause

Did you get a round resounding for you

Way up here

It seems like many dim years ago

Since I heard that face to face

Or seen you face to face

Though tonight I can feel you here

I get these notes

On butterflies and lilac sprays

From girls who just have to tell me

They saw you somewhere

In some office sits a poet

And he trembles as he sings

And he asks some guy

To circulate his soul around

On your mark red ribbon runner

The caressing rev of motors

Finely tuned like fancy women

In thirties evening gowns

Up the charts

Off to the airport-

Your name's in the news

Everything's first class-

The lights go down-

And it's just you up there

Getting them to feel like that

Remember the days when you used to sit

And make up your tunes for love

And pour your simple sorrow

To the soundhole and your knee

And now you're seen

On giant screens

And at parties for the press

And for people who have slices of you

From the company

They toss around your latest golden egg

Speculation-well, who's to know

If the next one in the nest

Will glitter for them so

I guess I seem ungrateful

With my teeth sunk in the hand

That brings me things

I really can't give up just yet

Now I sit up here

The critic!

And they introduce some band

But they seem so much confetti

Looking at them on my tv set

Oh the power and the glory

Just when you're getting a taste for worship

They start bringing out the hammers

And the boards

And the nails

I heard it in the wind last night

It sounded like applause

Chilly now

End of summer

No more shiny hot nights

It was just the arbutus rustling

And the bumping of the logs

And the moon swept down black water

Like an empty spotlight