Song for Eva

This is my song for Eva Gore-Booth from my song project: The Wise Book and the Lamp

Song for Eva

— Intro — I sing for you the song the workers made From the ‘yellow and the blue’, the rags of trade! From the sweat that fed the mills, where once your voice Gave hope and love and solace, and then choice. Freedom from the grind; their long despair You picked out from their lives, their matted hair.

You are the wave by the shore You are the stream from the hill. You are the wind in the flower Dancing, dancing still; I sing your song by the river, I sing it to city and town; To the poor who work and shiver; To the dancer’s long silk gown.

In the factory and the meadow Where once your soft voice rose To teach, and to love and endow With lecture, poem and prose; Your legacy like star-dust Engrained like a pearl in the mind Of the worker who, for bread, must Labour and sweat and grind.

You are the book of the ages The Queen laid under the cairn, Listening, listening to the sages: The wisdom for which you yearn. And cold in the arms of your angel Who lies like you replete, The rumours — snuffed like a candle — That tongues will not repeat.

Body from soul divided: The white bone bound in the clay — For eons the soul had bided, But flew when it might not stay. And wiser now you lie under the moss and the damp Listening and led through the silence, By “The Wise Book and the Lamp”. — (repeat last line) — © Frank Callery.