White breath on the window

White breath on the window

Iron under snow

Keep your name behind your teeth

There are things the north winds know

Moon marks cut the frozen yard

Lantern low beside the barn

You said you heard the hillside move

I saw the ravens leave at dawn

Old rope creaks on an empty gate Cold iron rings when I

turn the latch No fire left in the timber house Still something

waits beneath the ash

Do not call across the ridge Do not answer what you hear

When the black pines lean together Something ancient comes near

Bow the knee to the winter crown Feel that low world shaking

now

No bright road, no mercy shown

We carry

the dark back home

(ooh) I keep a blade by the sleeping mat Salt in a

bowl and a coal-black thread Your footprints stop at the river bend

But your voice still speaks from the shed Three hard knocks on

the wall at night One for the living,

two for the dead

I hold my

breath till the silence breaks And count the words I never said

Do not call across the ridge Do not answer what you hear

When the black pines lean together Something ancient comes near

Bow the knee to the winter crown

Feel that low world shaking now

No bright road, no mercy shown We carry the dark back home

Bow the knee when the white winds rise See the frost take

both your eyes Hear that drum beneath the storm The north has

claimed its own

If I vanish past the cairn

Leave no torch and speak no prayer

Let the snow erase the trail Let the old song fill the

air

Bow the knee to the winter crown

Feel that low world shaking now

No bright road, no mercy shown

We carry the dark back home

Bow the knee when the white winds rise

See the frost take both your eyes Hear that drum beneath the

storm The north has claimed its own

White breath

on the window

Iron under snow

Keep your name behind your teeth

There are things the north winds know