Get all 10 Leafblade releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Rufus, Merlin, Child of the Merrymoon, The Dreamer at the Plough (Selected Poems) eBook, Covid Sessions 2020, The Goddess With Child, It Seems That I've Found..., Mannaseech's Dance Through the Feathers, The Kiss of Spirit and Flesh, and 2 more.
1. |
Mother
04:29
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In a silent place of burial,
A woman weaves her spells,
Chanting in the dusky gold,
Autumn’s sleepy dells.
She enters the silence,
Naked, all alone,
Her tumbling blonde curls
Gleaming like the gold;
She walks between worlds
Like the crossing of a stream;
Her path is but a veil,
As light as a dream…
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2. |
Song of the Fae
04:14
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“Growing in this light,
Is this seed in my womb,
As Mercury peaks
Over my chambered tomb:
“The great burial place
Of my fathers of old;
This place of communion,
Adorned in gold;
“Here weaves my magic,
This cairn of the fae,
The children at the gate
Of the dawn of the day.”
Like a torrent in her veins runs the blood of the fae;
So with them she meets at the break of the day,
Delighting in the flesh of the faery host’s kiss,
In the alchemy of love between god and goddess.
Hers is a dancing, unending song –
Sweet love; she has done no wrong –
For come the next Maytime, brightening, wild,
In Beltane fires she sires a child;
A little one about whom the faery host play;
A child of the earth, with the eyes of the May.
“A prophesied one!” in the woods they sing,
“Brought to us upon the wing…
“For his soul is the soul of mother earth,
And we shall call him Merlin!”
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3. |
The Fire in Mercury
03:54
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We shall call him Merlin...
“Mercury’s fire,
Spirit of the May,
Child of the Merrymoon,
Lord of the Fae;
“A branch of the hawthorn,
A Lord of the wild;
Consort of the goddess
With the eyes of the child –
“For his soul is the soul of mother earth,
And we shall call him Merlin!”
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4. |
To the Wise Woman
07:08
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The child sired,
The fae song but a memory,
By night galloped
The mother and the babe
To a nearby village,
Aways from her castle,
To a woman chosen
By her friends of the glade…
“You must take the child, wise woman,” she cried,
“My purity given for my infant mild!”
“Fret you no more, my lady of the fae –
I’ve dreamt of this child, his one true way.
Old I may be,
And for this I have waited,
For much love I see
When others see hatred;
Long in the tooth,
But wise to the ways
That bring the moon
To darkened days!”
The tearful mother,
After long weeping minutes,
Then left for the night,
Consumed with such sadness,
The castle of her birth,
Her ancestors’ cairn,
Her place of the fae,
And of Merlin’s birth…
The old woman in her arms
Took the sleeping babe,
And saw the lights that winked about him,
The solace he betrayed.
“You’re a right one of the horns,” she said,
“The very spirit of May,
And long have I waited, my little blossom,
So long before this day.”
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5. |
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Lo, the child he did grow
With eyes like moonglow –
In the woods he did run
Beyond the fall of eve sun…
And all the while he would speak with his friend,
Old Blaise the hermit (a magician it was held),
Who could weave the magic of the living earth,
Was versed in the law of flower and herb.
For years a child, young Merlin observed
The ways of wildlife, of secret worlds,
While all the other children played,
Casting sadness on lonely days:
“Motherless pig who plays with the spoor!”
But Merlin knew of the others’ envy;
Possessed, he was, of the Gift –
Could walk the rapids, run with the deer,
Make of his heart a faerie seer…
“Dreaming child with eyes like amber…”
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6. |
The Revelation
03:34
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Alone,
In the woods near his home,
He wandered, forlorn…
“O where are my mother and father?
Why do I alone watch the dawn?”
“To Blaise I will go,
My friend of the earth –
There he will show me
Mother’s great song,
The one true mother,
Lady of us all;
How the sweet merlin,
Wherever he flies,
Is ever near safety,
Home, warm fires.”
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7. |
Waiting by a Teardrop
11:55
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(i) The Watching
And so a sweet princess
Wept in her chambers, subdued...
Ten years in sorrow...
Each day, she thought
With her candlelit tears, of her son...
Watched Merlin growing.
“The spells of the fae -
Oh how there’s love in my tears,
But fain could I keep him!
A fatherless child -
But the woodland god claimed him as blood...
Green, amber eyes...
“Green, amber eyes...
“I see too, my son,
Weeping to his master, Old Blaise;
So dark are his dreams!
Plagued with future kings...
A broken realm, streaming with blood,
Abandoned by the gods...”
Then, a beauteous castle
With towers and pennants bright,
Where sits a throned Arthur
In future glory and might...
(ii) Soliloquy
“O how his thoughts are plagued by these scenes
Of chivalry, honour, banquets, great queens;
There, he walks, cloaken, held in such awe,
Communing with the king upon state and law.
“In the forests he roams, as one with the fae,
Weaving his magic the livelong day.
“Oh, what a burden, for such a young mind,
Are these dreams of prophecy, glowing, unkind...
“So here I must sit
In my chamber, so alone with my tears,
My solace now flown.
One comfort I have
Are the kin of the fae, and the woods -
Breathe with them, Merlin!
Green, amber eyes!”
(iii) (Refrain) The Calling
“Merlin! Merlin!”
I will seek the Once and Future King...
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8. |
Vortigern's Waning Star
07:55
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And so the land came unto war;
In bloody death the earth was torn.
Each king warred for the rights to land
With broken oaths and murderous hands.
To fire and rape did the country fall;
A kingless realm for lord and thrall –
But Merlin saw the battle of kings
As the warring dragons of earth’s hills…
“Merlin, Merlin…”
In firelit woods the seers called
To a feathered cloak about a child.
Their Saxon lord watched like a hawk,
As he laid the first stones to his fort.
“The dragons shake the very earth!”
The seers chanted in the their mirth,
“We need his blood spilled on these stones,
And the dragons will stay their warring bones.”
Merlin of the Feathered Cloak
Was brought before the lord,
Vortigern of Saxon stock,
His dark, bloodthirsty horde
“You wear the cloak of feathers, boy -
You’re aware of what we seek?
Here I’d build my fort of forts,
And crush the low and meek!”
“The red dragon fights the white -
The Saxons and these isles -
And all will be put to right
With the blood of a bastard child?”
“Surely, you do not see
The earth here toils in war?
The great dragon will not rest
As all you seek is ruin!”
Thus, young Merlin rose and spoke;
Offered to right the stones -
"But it does not need my blood, my lord;
Not on this dragon’s throne.”
Before the astounded soldiers,
Through the long cold night,
Merlin wove the dragon force,
Calmed its warring might.
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9. |
Dragon Magic and War
05:00
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Leafblade UK
Sean Jude - Vocals, Guitar
Kevin Murphy - Bass
Thomas Legg - Drums, Percussion,
Keys
Liverpool (UK) based prog rock trio.
A rich blending of powerful evocations through progressive and Celtic metal, gripping rock anthems and hauntingly acoustic refrains, rich with storytelling imagery, myth and sacred geometry.
... more
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