1. INTO THE BURMAL WOE

(Instrumental)


2. A BLACK BILE FOG

Fog lifts revealing
Night's victims and victors
The struggle eternal
To stay green, to stay
Amidst all remaining
All that's turning gray
The cold aroma of a winter's fire
Warm memories overwhelm
They become dark all too soon
Like the day, last of days
Charred remnants become clear
Into oblivion, our past burned
For we are all but ashes
That have not yet turned
The lone call of a raven
Echoes through these woods
Like chambers of my memory
Upon the past I brood
Recollections, reminiscence
For the best of times I yearn
As we are all but ashes
That have not yet turned


3. THE COLD AND THE HOPE

Wistful thoughts and dark memories
As I recall the dead of winter
Fleeing warmth and a most bitter cold
My mind is far from here and now
O, let me be! In this hinterland of snow
To overcome my sorrow with these black birds of woe
On my honor I shall not tarry
But must confront the ghosts which haunt me
Lest they wrench my very soul
They're words left deep furrows
In my mind, heart, soul
I will cultivate them for my spirit's growth
"I am the way, the truth, and the life"
Fading into eternity, truth hard as stone
Like a December's snow, my elders are falling
Yet have never stood so strong
A celebration for the ages, a rebirth unto dust
They will always be with me
Until I am with them


4. REFLECTION OF AN OLD SOUL

Thou wilt interpret life to me, and men
Art, nature, yea, my own soul's mysteries
Bringing truth out, clear-joyous, to my ken
Fair as the morn trampling the dull night
Then the lone hillside shall hear exultant cries
The joyous see me joy, the weeping weep
The watching smile, as Death breathes on me his cold sleep


5. WITH DISTANCE

Distance - time and space
The chasm between
What is and was
Allows me to find
Nothing
Distance - like newfound faith
Can come between
What is and was
Allows me to find
Everything
Silence is needed, golden, broken
As I trek into the woods
I must press on
To find something, anything
Distance
Benign
I have become
A brother to dragons
And a companion to owls
My lyre also is turned
To mourning
And my organ to the voice
Of them that weep
And so the mountains become
A lodestone
The forest an escape
An albatross will be laid down
With distance
Silence
Nothing
Everything


6. CALLING UPON THE ANCIENT ONE

Burn, O ancient fire
Purging all impurities
Flow, O ancient waters
Ever cleansing, baptizing
Blow, O ancient wind
Drying up all left standing
Shine, O ancient light
Illuminate this dark world
Return, O ancient of days
Deliver us with your blood
A new Babylon is rising
Wood and stone abandoned
For brick, mortar and steel
The natural ways forsaken
Impugned as we
Bend them to our will
Blue skies laden with white scars
Solemn night defiled by
A throng of false light
A tranquil sonority fallen
At the hands of men
The ever growing pall
Expanse at what perdition?
At the hands of men
At the hands of men


7. A HIEMAL AURA

(Instrumental)