The Goat Paths

Lyrics

The crooked paths go every way Upon the hill -- they wind about Through the heather in and out Of the quiet sunniness And there the goats, day after day Stray in sunny quietness Cropping here and cropping there As they pause and turn and pass Now a bit of heather spray Now a mouthful of the grass In the deeper sunniness In the place where nothing stirs Quietly in quietness In the quiet of the furze For a time thеy come and lie Staring on the roving sky If you approach thеy run away They leap and stare, away they bound With a sudden angry sound To the sunny quietude ; Crouching down where nothing stirs In the silence of the furze Couching down again to brood In the sunny solitude If I were as wise as they I would stray apart and brood I would beat a hidden way Through the quiet heather spray To a sunny solitude; And should you come I'd run away I would make an angry sound I would stare and turn and bound To the deeper quietude To the place where nothing stirs In the silence of the furze In that airy quietness I would think as long as they ; Through the quiet sunniness I would stray away to brood By a hidden beaten way In a sunny solitude I would think until I found Something I can never find Something lying on the ground In the bottom of my mind