Post Epiphany Carols
i. Dreams
1. When Joseph Dreamed
He heard a sword shout
And felt the blood spurt
Over Ephrath;
And then he saw himself
A nomad
Beside a pyramid
Conning haeroglyphs.
Refrain: Lulla, lulla, lulla-lulla.
2. When Caspar dreamed
He heard a prison
And felt a demon
In David's city;
Then saw three kings upon a byway
Far from the highway
Back to luxury.
Refrain.
3. When Herod dreamed
He felt a poison
And heard an orison
Deep in his palace;
Then saw himself eunuched in exile
Before a starry veil
Draped on a chalice.
Refrain.
4. When Jesus dreamed
He heard a choir
And felt the ardour
Of the Holy Spirit's Grace;
And then He saw the golden children,
Feted pilgrims
In His Father's warm embrace.
Refrain twice.
ii. Departure
1. Sadly set for Egypt, Mary says goodbye,
Knowing she must travel, scarcely knowing why;
Too tired and dusty to wipe a tear from her eye,
Doggedly determined, innocently shy.
2. Riding on a donkey through the barren wild,
Watchful and protective of her precious child;
Relieved but wondering what it will be like to be exiled
Infinitely patient, unfailingly mild.
3. No more homely shepherds, no more reverent kings,
Gone the wondrous stable and the birth star glittering;
And, taking each day as it comes, rooted or wandering,
Wedded to the mission of Gabriel's quickening.
iii. Massacre
1. Lost in the falling needles and the fading tinsel,
Buried in coloured paper and in turkey bones,
Not even shadows in our family rows and revels,
The Holy Innocents languish unmourned, unknown.
2. The earliest martyrs of our Church unconsecrated,
Killed between a pair of kings, too young to know,
The first Saints of the yet unwritten Second Covenant,
Of a line of victims reaping what they do not sow.
3. Now we have re-discovered Rubens graphic horror,
Remember the screaming sacrifice, the ruined mothers;
And in the name of He for whom they were slaughtered,
Suffer your children come to you; and all the others.