Lyrics

I. Circles
Text by Rumi, trans. Anon.

Come out of the circle of time
And into the circle of Love.

II. You
Text by Rumi and Shahram Shiva

By day I praised you
and never knew it.
By night I stayed with you
and never knew it.
I always thought that
I was me--but no,
I was you
and never knew it.

III. Turning Point
Text by Ernest Hilbert

We post a public face, an image sure
To spark envy in others, or make us feel
We star in an old film, the femme fatale
And leading man, but our lives aren’t so pure
Or simple. It’s hard to know if the real
You is the one with a smile or the scowl.
Life feels long, but we only get a few
True chances: to be joined, or remain free,
Or pray for the best a second time around.
Did we simply settle when we settled down?

IV. Time’s Persistence
Text by Chris LaRosa

I must leave,
Time’s persistence confines
This aging love and life.
You call and I answer;
I must leave.

V. Neutral Tones
Text by Thomas Hardy

We stood by a pond that winter day,
And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod,
–They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.
 
Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles solved years ago;
And some words played between us to and fro—
On which lost the more by our love.
 
The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Like an ominous bird a-wing….
 
Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree,
And a pond edged with grayish leaves.