Judy Collins - Gilded Rooms Lyrics

We sat in gilded rooms of fine old glass
The light from candles dancing on the walls
She sang me the songs she'd written in her sorrow
And told me she'd be dead and gone tomorrow

She learned to sing and paint in her own blood
As it dripped upon the strings of her guitar
She found a blade of steel in the silver flood
And tore her friends and fingernails apart

She thought perhaps that she would marry soon
The lover who had set her heart on fire
The one she chose under the waning moon
She ground them down as every flame burned higher

And it's only time will tell and time alone
What is meant when all is set in stone
Who will ride one day on the shining horse
Who will win and who will stay the course

He was the wrangler of some famous men
He was the star of every stage he crossed
He was the mountain he would have to move
For he was never found and never lost

They met when he was thirty years of age
Already at his peak and at a loss
Joan of Arc had crossed his path so early
And he had borne the dagger and the cross

And it's only time will tell and time alone
What is meant of all this skin and bone
Who will ride off on the shining horse
Who will win and who will stay the course

He said, I'd really like to study love
Taking both her hands between his own
He heard the singing of the mourning dove
And felt his soul was ready to atone

The girl with hair of gold and heart of steel
In time her past and future would begin
She wept in caves and watched the turning wheel
And lost as often as she failed to win

And it's only time will tell and time alone
What is meant by all is skin and bone
Who will ride off on the shining horse
Who will win and who will stay the course

The man who wrote the poems of ash and blood
All the saints were dancing to his rhymes
He had the gift of purest, truest love
He had the cure for each and every crime

And it's only time will tell and time alone
What is meant when all set in stone
Who will ride off on the shining horse
Who will win and who will stay the course