A Little Loreena...

I got the most wonderful thing in the mail today. A few weeks ago I won an auction on Ebay for Loreena McKennitt's Live in Paris and Toronto album. I already had a copy of this album, but one of the CDs has gone missing and the other one got horribly scratched while bouncing about in the Element.

I was first introduced to her music as many of us were, by the song The Mummer's Dance which enjoyed brief radio airplay nearly 10 years ago. Now being a confessed anglophile and celtic-music-o-phile (yeah, I made that word up), I fell in love with her music at first listen. If you saw the TNT mini-series Mists of Avalon, you heard another of her songs, The Mystic's Dream, as Morgaine parted the mists surrounding the island of Avalon.

My absolute favorite of her tunes, however, sparked my bidding on a second copy of Live in Paris and Toronto. The last song on the first disc is Dante's Prayer, and it is my absolute favorite of hers. Do follow the link and have a listen...she is a spellbinding artist, and checking the mail to find that CD inside today was well worth the drive across town to the Post Office.

DANTE'S PRAYER

Words and music by Loreena McKennitt

When the dark wood fell before me
And all the paths were overgrown
When the priests of pride say there is no other way
I tilled the sorrows of stone

I did not believe because I could not see
Though you came to me in the night
When the dawn seemed forever lost
You showed me your love in the light of the stars

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

Then the mountain rose before me
By the deep well of desire
From the fountain of forgiveness
Beyond the ice and fire

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

Though we share this humble path, alone
How fragile is the heart
Oh give these clay feet wings to fly
To touch the face of the stars

Breathe life into this feeble heart
Lift this mortal veil of fear
Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears
We'll rise above these earthly cares

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
Please remember me