don mclean
starry, starry night
paint your palette blue and gray
look out on a summer’s day
with eyes that know the darkness in my soul
shadows on the hills
sketch the trees and daffodils
catch the breeze and winter chills
in colours on the snowy linen land
now I understand
what you tried to say to me
and how you suffered for your sanity
how you tried to set them free
they would not listen, they did not know how
perhaps they’ll listen now
starry, starry night
flaming flowers brightly blaze
swirling clouds in violet haze
reflect in Vincent’s eyes of china blue
colours changing hue
morning fields of amber grain
weathered faces lined in pain
are soothed beneath the artist’s loving hand
now I understand
what you tried to say to me
and how you suffered for your sanity
how you tried to set them free
they would not listen, they did not know how
perhaps they’ll listen now
though they could not love you
still your love was true
and when no hope was left inside
on that starry, starry night
you took your leave
as lovers often do
but i want to tell you Vincent
such a world did not deserve
one as beautiful as you
starry, starry night
portraits hang in empty halls
frameless heads on nameless walls
eyes that saw a world and could not forget
strangers we/ll met
ragged men in ragged clothes
silver thorned bloody rose
lies crushed and broken on the virgin snow
now I think I know
what you tried to say to me
and how you suffered for your sanity
how you tried to set them free
they would not listen
they’re not listening still
perhaps they never will
starry, starry night
pastel ribbonned parasols
bloom as drifts of acid fall
like mist upon the cherries in the spring
do you them sing
even as the lions maul
in answer to a higher call
real
now we truly feel
what you tried to help us see
and how you suffered through your sanity
how you tried to set us free
we did not listen, we would not learn how
perhaps we’ll listen now