Secret Gardens - Shawn Colvin

My grandmother’s house is still there but it isn’t the same

A plain wooden cottage, a patch of brown lawn

And a fence that hangs standing and sighing in the Seattle rain

I drive past the strangers and wish they could see what I see

A tangle of summer birds flying in sunlight

A forest of lilies, an orchard of apricot trees

Secret gardens of the heart where the flowers bloom forever

I see you shining through the night in the ice and snow of winter

Great grandfather’s house is still there but it isn’t the same

The barn is torn down and the fences are gone

The Idaho wind blows the topsoil away every spring

I still see the ghosts of the people I knew long ago

Inside the old kitchen they bend and they sigh

My life passed them up and the world in it’s way passed them by

Secret gardens of the heart where the old stay young forever

I see you shining through the night in the ice and snow of winter

But most of all it is me who has changed but I’m still the same

That’s me at the weddings, that’s me at the graves

Dressed like the people who once looked so grown up and brave

I look in the mirror through the eyes of the child that was me

I see willows bending, the season is spring

Silver blue sailing birds fly with the sun on their wings

Secret gardens of the heart where the dreams live on forever

I see you shining through the night in the ice and snow of winter

Secret gardens of the heart where the flowers bloom forever

I see you shining through the night in the ice and snow of winter