From the recording Twelve Children (CD-quality WAV)
I wrestled with this idea in Dancing Child, that there was beauty all around us, if only we could wake up and see it. The protagonist is surrounded by squalor and indifference, and trapped by his own sense of inevitable doom. Yet, he teeters on the edge of awakening and (in the chorus at least) finds his sense of wonder. Dancing Child's Reply evolved during its writing into a sort of response to the earlier protagonist, written by the catalyst for that awakening. An ever-present agent of hope and beauty -- she reassures him, no practically jumps up and down and shouts “I’m right here.”
Lyrics
River running in a full moon dark night
Trying to find a path tween wrong and right
Seeking wisdom
Finding broken glass
Rushing for moving blinding light
Falling back before your empty sight
You are running
Falling way to fast
Circle spun, I am dancing
Voices falling, but I am
Not alone no, but I am dancing
Close your eyes now
I been falling from the sun-hard black roof
Singing back the morning cold proof
Wish what you wish for
What you cannot find
I been lying in the cold day doorway
Dreaming as the children sweetly play
I am with you
Why are you so blind?
Circle spun, I am dancing
Voices falling, and I am
Not alone, but I am dancing
Close your eyes and
I been singing to the song that you play
But I'm not the child that you made
Clouds are breaking
Breaking in your eyes
Dance to dress your bleeding wound
Move to fill your empty womb, its a
Shattered mirror
Reflecting broken skies
Circle spun, I am dancing
Voices falling, and I am
Not alone, but I am dancing
Close your eyes now
Circle spun, I am dancing
Voices falling, and I am
Not alone, but I am dancing
Close your eyes and wash these words away