Castle Of Ice
Once upon a time
Early in the spring
I would walk to town
Sit down by the fountain
Watch the waters play
Like castles in the sky
Toss a lucky stone
Watch the circles growing
One day in the circles
I could see a girl’s reflection
Looking back across the fountain to my eyes
Tell me what you see
When you look at me
Can you see the castles grow?
Our summer came alive
Shadows on the green
We would sit together
Celebrate the light that filled our world
And while she was beside me
I could see the castles grow
High above the fountain
They would shimmer in the morning
While the summer sun threw rainbows to the sky
Castles made of light
I could hardly see
While the days were long
And the sun was shining
Castles made of ice
Never crossed my mind
While the sun was high
A chill was in the air
Leaves were on the ground
All our world of green
Green had turned to amber and to brown
When I saw her face
I could see her eyes cast down
Down inside the fountain
All the leaves lay on the water
Like the memories of a hundred setting suns
Castles made of light
Travel with the sun
Fall into the west
When their day is done
And she said the night was cold
She would come no more
I’ll carve a block of ice
Hold it in my hands
Look inside my heart
See the way the castle wants to grow
Then block by frozen block
I’ll build the world we used to know
All around the fountain
All the poets and the martyrs
Dream a thousand empty castles to the night
Castles made of hope
Reaching for the stars
Castles made of stone
Built to last forever
Castles made of light
Rising with the sun
Fluid as the wind
Fragile as tomorrow
How was I to know?
How was I to see
While the sun was riding high?
No - I
Never meant to build
This castle made of ice
Castle Of Ice
This song is from a dream I had in 1990...
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(8/24/90 – 1st morning in New Haven – slept on floor exhausted)
A boy cuts ice from a frozen pond (around a frozen fountain) to build an ice castle. It is very sad, and he sings a song. (The lyric is known to me in the dream; it is very simple and, out of context with the music, trite – but with it’s melody and dramatic situation and ice images it is PERFECT and very moving) a BALLAD or LAMENT (stylistically reminiscent of Arlen and Harburg’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” – long melodic gestures, diatonic intervals). He is building a castle, a monument, perhaps a tomb for some lost hope or romance.
This is a performance, and I am in the audience, in the second row. I am very moved, and I start to weep. Embarrassed, I move back one row to the third row.
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Of course I had to at least try to write the song. I think I got the emotional tone pretty well. However, I wound up writing a narrative song - a song ABOUT the dream. In the dream the song was a dramatic song, sung in the first person by the boy.
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Maybe some day I'll get to take another crack at it.