memoirs: a trilogy

Singer:smith, michael w.

follow the footsteps

or travel down your own road

designing your fate

hear what your heart says

still you decide which way to go

your life's an open gate

'le bon et 'le mal

these are the voices

we nous somme liberti'

we make the choices

echoes of laughter

dancing in distant corridors

with the tears of hearts undone

dreams we chase after

give us the key to any door

we are what we become

holding and reaching

we face the calm

we face the fear

as we learn to win and love

voices and speaking

still we hear what we want to hear

our life is ours to choose

good king wenceslaus looked out on the feast of stephen. when the snow lay round about

deep and crisp and even. brightly shone the moon that night

though the frost was cruel

when a poor man came in sight

gathering winter fuel. hither page and stand by me if thou knowst it telling

yonder peasant

who is he

where and what his dwelling?

sire

he lives a good league hence

underneath the mountain

right against the forest fence

by saint agnes' fountain. bring me flesh and bring me wine

bring me pinelogs hither

thou and i will see him dine when we bear them thither

page and monarch forth they went

forth they went together

through the rude winds wild lament

and the bitter weather. sire the night is darker now

and the wind blows stronger

fails my heart

i know not how

i can go no longer. mark my footsteps my good page

tread thou in them boldly

thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood less coldly. in his master's steps he trod where the snow lay dinted

heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed

therefore christian men be sure

wealth or rank possessing

ye who now will bless the poor

shall yourselves find blessing. angels we have heard on high

sweetly singing o'er the plains

and the mountains in reply

echo back their joyus strains

gloria o gloria in excelsis deo

come to bethlehem and see

him whose birth the angels sing

come adore on bended knee

christ the lord the newborn king

gloria o gloria in excelsis deo

angels we have heard on high

sweetly singing o'er the plains

jesus lord of heav'n and earth

with us sing our savior's birth

gloria o gloria in exelsis deo

alleluia