The Hare s Lament - Caitriona O Leary Christopher Layer Jay Elfenbein Mel Mercier Robert Mealy

Oh this son of mine I love so well

And all the toil it takes

I'd give to him a garden and keep clear of snakes

But the one thing he most treasures is

To make his own mistakes ohhh

He goes charging on the cliffs of life

A reckless mountaineer

I could help him not to stumble

I could warn him what to fear

I could shout until I'm breathless

And he'd still refuse to hear ohhh

But you cannot close the acorn

Once the oak begins to grow

And you cannot close your heart

To what it fears and needs to know

That the hardest part of love

Is the letting go

As a child I found a sparrow

Who had fallen form the nest

And I nursed him back to health till he was stronger than the rest

But when I tried to hold it

It would peck and scratch my chest

Till I let it go

And I watched it fly away from me

With it's brightened self resolve

And part of me was cursing I had helped it grow so strong

And I feared it might go hungery

And I feared it might go wrong ohhh

But I could not close the acorn

Once the oak began to grow

And I cannot close my heart

To what it fears and needs to know

That the hardest part of love

Is the letting go

Is the letting go

And it's only in Eden grows a rose without a thorn

And your children start to leave you

On the day that they were born

They will leave you there to cheer for them

They will leave you there to mourn ever so

Like an ark on uncharted seas their lives will be tossed

And the deeper is your love for them

The crueler is the cost

And just when they start to find themselves

Is when you fear they're lost ohhh

But you cannot close the acorn

Once the oak begins to grow

And you cannot close your heart

To what it fears and needs to know

That the hardest part of love

And the rarest part of love

And the truest is part of love

Love

Is the letting go