Forsaken Gardens chords by Peter Hammill

Forsaken Gardens (PETER HAMMILL: The Silent Corner, The Empty Stage)


(No chords, just voice.)

F                                Dm
Where are all the joys of yesterday?

F                                  (already piano:) Dm
Where, now, is the happiness and laughter that we shared?

Am7                              G
Gone, like our childhood dreams, aspirations and beliefs -

            Am           F
Time is a thief, and he ravages our gardens,

                              Dm
stripping saplings, felling trees,

F                                                 Dm
trampling on our flowers, sucking sap and drying seeds.

Am                          G
In the midnight candle-light of experience

            Am                    D C B
all colour fades, green fingers grey...

G                                   Em
Time, alone, shall murder all the flowers,

G                                                            F
still, there's time to share our plots and all that we call 'ours'.

Am                                                 F
How much worse, then, if we all deny each others' needs

A#          F        Dm       C
and keep our garden's privately?

Am                                       Em
Its getting colder, wind and rain leave gashes;

Am                             F     G     Am G Am
looking back, I only see the friends I've lost.

Am                                 Em
Fires smoulder, raking through the ashes

Am
my hands are dirty, my mind is numb,

   F      G  Am  G   F
I count the cost of 'I':

Em                                      Bm
"I need to get on, I've got to tend my garden;

Em                                          C  D   Em Bm
got to shut you out, no time to crave your pardon no_ ow".

F#m Bm G# A# C

F                                                 Dm
Now I see the garden that I've grown is just the same
as those outside;

F                                                D#
the fences, [that] erected to protect, simply divide...

Gm
There's ruination everywhere, the weather has

        D#
played havoc with the grass -

Gm                                                F
does anyone believe his [their] garden's really going to last?

Am                                               F
[and] In the time allotted us, can any man keep miserly his own?

Am                                    F     Em Am
Is there any pleasure in a solitary growth?

F G Am G Am Em Am

Am G Am G F

Em Bm Em C D Em

Bm F#m Bm G# A# C C# Fm

F                              Dm
Come and see my garden if you will -

   F                                                Dm
I'd like someone to see it all before each root is killed.

Am7                G
Surely now its time to open up each life to all -

               Am7                   D C B
tear down the walls, if its not too late!

G                               Em
There is so much sorrow in the world;

G                                              F
there is so much emptiness and heartbreak and pain;

Am                                               F
Somewhere on the road we have all taken a wrong turn -

A#          F             Dm      C F C A#
how can we build the right path aga_    _in?

              Am7               Gm
Through the grief, through the pain,

                                Am7
our flowers need each others' rain...