Leonard Cohen RIP - Ballad of the Absent Mare (Longer Version)  -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYf3Un5lWKw

"Ballad Of The Absent Mare" Say a prayer for the cowboy  His mare's run away  And he'll walk til he finds her  His darling, his stray  but the river's in flood  and the roads are awash  and the bridges break up  in the panic of loss.  And there's nothing to follow  There's nowhere to go  She's gone like the summer  gone like the snow  And the crickets are breaking  his heart with their song  as the day caves in  and the night is all wrong  Did he dream, was it she  who went galloping past  and bent down the fern  broke open the grass  and printed the mud with  the iron and the gold  that he nailed to her feet  when he was the lord  And although she goes grazing  a minute away  he tracks her all night  he tracks her all day  Oh blind to her presence  except to compare  his injury here  with her punishment there  Then at home on a branch  in the highest tree  a songbird sings out  so suddenly  Ah the sun is warm  and the soft winds ride  on the willow trees  by the river side  Oh the world is sweet  the world is wide  and she's there where  the light and the darkness divide  and the steam's coming off her  she's huge and she's shy  and she steps on the moon  when she paws at the sky  And she comes to his hand  but she's not really tame  She longs to be lost  he longs for the same  and she'll bolt and she'll plunge  through the first open pass  to roll and to feed  in the sweet mountain grass  Or she'll make a break  for the high plateau  where there's nothing above  and there's nothing below  and it's time for the burden  it's time for the whip  Will she walk through the flame  Can he shoot from the hip  So he binds himself  to the galloping mare  and she binds herself  to the rider there  and there is no space  but there's left and right  and there is no time  but there's day and night  And he leans on her neck  and he whispers low  "Whither thou goest  I will go"  And they turn as one  and they head for the plain  No need for the whip  Ah, no need for the rein  Now the clasp of this union  who fastens it tight?  Who snaps it asunder  the very next night  Some say the rider  Some say the mare  Or that love's like the smoke  beyond all repair  But my darling says  "Leonard, just let it go by  That old silhouette  on the great western sky"  So I pick out a tune  and they move right along  and they're gone like the smoke  and they're gone like this song