Uploaded September 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago

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Past Due track 04. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: archive.org/details/filk_past_due
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Lyrics:

In the time of rising mountains, in the age when life was new
The trees were the rulers of life on earth, and the world as a forest grew
But a new life found the forest, and a new life tore the land
So the dryad came to protect the wood, to stay the human hand,

Singing, “I am the strength of the heart and the root,
I am the soul of the wood.”

In the time of ancient mountains, in an age no longer new
A man walked into the hardwood grove with a chainsaw and its crew
He reached for the crippled oak tree, and he waved his crew to start
When a vision leapt from the broken limb, and pierced him through the heart,

Singing, “I am the strength of the heart and the root,
I am the soul of the wood.”

She was Sun and Moon and Starlight, she was Earth and Sky and Sea
She was everything that he'd ever loved, and all that he wished to be
And she sang of the elder forests, and she sang of the rustling wind
And her arms reached out from the jagged bark, reached out to pull him in,

Singing, “I am the strength of the heart and the root,
I am the soul of the wood.”

But the man pulled out an acorn, and he held it to her eyes
Then he sang to her of birth and life—that even an oak must die
Then she knew that her tree had withered, so she turned, no longer strong
And she passed away, and the chainsaw roar drowned out her final song,

Singing, “I am the strength of the heart and the root,
I am the soul of the wood.”

In the night under ancient mountains, in the night under autumn sky
A man looks down at a rotting stump, and he shakes his head and sighs
So he kneels to plant the acorn and he hears a quiet sound
It's the sound of joy and the hope of spring—the new life in the ground!

Singing, “I am the strength of the heart and the root,
I am the soul of the wood.”
Singing, “I am the strength of the heart and the root,
I am the soul of the wood.”