Dan Fogelberg: In The Passage

I’ve expressed my appreciation for the music and lyrics of Dan Fogelberg before. I also find myself especially moved by songs about the passage of time. In this song, Dan writes about the value of looking to and learning from the past. Here are the song’s lyrics.

There’s a ring around the moon tonight and a chill in the air

And a fire in the stars that hang so near, so near

There’s a sound in the wind that blows through the wild mountain holds

Like the sighs of a thousand crying souls, crying souls

There’s a time when the traveler is fated to find

That insight has turned his gaze behind, behind

And the steps taken yesterday will beckon again

And lead to his weary journey’s end, his journey’s end

And in the passage from the cradle to the grave we are born, madly dancing

Rushing headlong through the crashing of the days

We run on and on without a backwards glance

We run on and on without a backwards glance

I cast my fate with the wife of Lot I turned my gaze around

Knowing neither what I sought nor what was to be found

Heeding weakness, feeding strength, oh life at length is frail

I seek again the river’s source through time’s dark shadowed veil

In the fast fading century, as we spin through the years

I pray that our failing vision clears, our vision clears

And in the passage from the cradle to the grave we are born, madly dancing

Rushing headlong through the crashing of the days

We run on and on without a backwards glance

We run on and on without a backwards glance

The places dash and the faces dart like fishes in a dream

Hiding ‘neath the murky banks of long forgotten streams

The lines of life are never long when seen from end to end

The future’s never coming, and the past has never been

There’s a ring around the moon tonight, and a chill in the air

And a fire in the stars that hang so near, so near

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Dan Fogelberg
In The Passage lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC