I'll learn to love the fallow way   When winter draws the valley down   And stills the rivers in the storm   And freezes all the little brooks      Time when our steps slow to the song   Of falling flakes and crackling flames   When silver stars are high and still   Deep in the velvet of the sky      The crystal times, the silence times   I'll learn to love their quiet breath   While deep beneath the glistening snow   The black earth dreams of violets   I'll learn to love the fallow time      I'll learn to love the fallow way   When all my colors fade to white   And flying birds fold back their wings   Upon my anxious wanderings      The sun has slanted all her rays   Across the vast and harvest plain   My memories mingle in the dawn   I dream of joyful vagabonds      The crystal times, the silence times   I'll learn to love their quietness   While deep beneath the glistening snow   The black earth dreams in of violets   I'll learn to love the fallow times      No drummer comes across the plain   To tell of triumph or of pain   No word of far off battle's cry   To draw me out or draw me nigh      I'll learn to love the fallow way   And gather in the patient fruits   And after autumns blaze and burn   I'll know the feel of still, deep roots      But nothing seem to do or need   That crack the ice in frozen ponds   And slumbering in winter's folds   Have dreams of green and blue and gold      I'll learn to love the fallow way   And listen for the blossoming   Of my own heart once more in spring      As sure as time, as sure as snow   As sure as moonlight and the stars   The fallow time will fall away   The sun will bring an April day   And I will yield to summer's way