Leonard Cohen – Ballad Of The Absent Mare (Guitar)

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Say a prayer for the cowboy, his mare's run away

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And he'll walk till he finds her, his darling, his stray

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But the river's in flood and the roads are awash

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And the bridges break up in the panic of loss

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And there's nothing to follow, there's nowhere to go

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She's gone like the summer, gone like the snow

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And the crickets are breaking his heart with their song

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As the day caves in and the night is all wrong

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Did he dream, was it she who went galloping past

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And bent down the fern and broke open the grass

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And printed the mud with the iron and the gold

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That he nailed to her feet when he was the lord

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And although she goes grazing a minute away

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He tracks her all night and he tracks her all day

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Oh blind to her presence except to compare

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His injury here with her punishment there

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Then at home on his branch in the highest tree

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A songbird sings out so suddenly

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Oh the sun is warm and the soft winds ride

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On the willow trees by the riverside

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Oh the world is sweet and the world is wide

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And she's there where the light and the darkness divide

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And the steam's coming off her, she's huge and she's shy

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And she steps on the moon when she paws at the sky

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And she comes to his hand but she's not really tame

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She longs to be lost and he longs for the same

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And she'll bolt and she'll plunge through the first open pass

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To roll and to feed in the sweet mountain grass

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Or she'll make a break for the high plateau

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Where there's nothing above and there's nothing below

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And it's time for their burden, it's time for the whip

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Will she walk through the flame, can he shoot from the hip

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So he binds himself to the galloping mare

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And she binds herself to the rider there

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And there is no space but there's left and right

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And there is no time but there's day and night

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And he leans on her neck and he whispers low

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Wither thou goest, I will go

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And they turn as one and they head for the plain

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No need for the whip, no need for the rein

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Now the clasp of this union who fastens it tight

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Who snaps it asunder the very next night

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Some say the rider, some say the mare

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Or that love's like the smoke, beyond all repair

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But my darling says, Leonard, just let it go by

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That old silhouette on the great Western sky

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So I pick out a tune and they move right along

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And they're gone like the smoke and they're gone like this song