Dying Wood

Verse 1

First time I went to the tree

I knocked on wood for luck

No one came to answer me

So I turned around and tucked

My good intentions back inside

The second time I tried again

The branches swayed and leaned my way

Wild and patient in the wind

Pre-Chorus

No bad luck arrived

No shadow crossed the yard

I knocked a third time just to say

My fortune wasn't hard

Chorus

Deep in the dying wood

I will be there when you knock

Ten lives of ravens overhead

Counting crow and stag and rock

Deep in the dying wood

Where the nymphs have gone to hide

I will be there when you knock

With my soul tucked deep inside

Post-Chorus

Knock knock knock

Come find me

Knock knock knock

I'm waiting

Verse 2

A woodpecker drills a downed log

Chiseling its nest in dead wood

The rapid blows of beak on bark

Hammer me awake each night for good

A week of restless counting

Of holes the bird has carved

Beneath the bark the nymphs all live

Like charms in drawers preserved

Pre-Chorus

They are not immortal

But they live ten times the bird

And the phoenix outlives the ravens

Every single word

Chorus

Deep in the dying wood

I will be there when you knock

Ten lives of ravens overhead

Counting crow and stag and rock

Deep in the dying wood

Where the nymphs have gone to hide

I will be there when you knock

With my soul tucked deep inside

Post-Chorus

Knock knock knock

Come find me

Knock knock knock

I'm waiting

Bridge

The red patch on its head

A splash of blood to catch my eye

Tender wing buds rise like hills

And I hear the spirits cry

Fly away

Fly away

Changed forever at the pond

What part of me they take away

Will settle in the beyond

Chorus

Deep in the dying wood

I will be there when you knock

Ten lives of ravens overhead

Counting crow and stag and rock

Deep in the dying wood

Where the nymphs have gone to hide

I will be there when you knock

With my soul tucked deep inside

Outro

Knock knock knock

Knock knock knock

I will be there

I will be there

When you knock