If You Could Read My Mind

Gordon Lightfoot wrote this song in 1969 about the failure of a relationship.   

The line "In a castle dark or fortress strong" was one that always grabbed me. The placement of the adjectives is something you can only do in poetic writing.  Mistakenly, I had always thought he was singing "castle dawn".   Had no idea what a "castle dawn" was, but it conjured an image of a castle looming in an early morning fog - a sorrowful image in my mind - which added to the tone. The mind has a way of hearing what it wants.

The heartbreak Lightfoot experienced is obvious.  Most have experienced some degree of that same pain, which is probably the reason the song was a huge hit.  It is the ability to capture the essence of a common experience and put it to words and music that makes for a great song.  The particulars of this song are probably only known to the author himself.  It isn't important that the listener understand all that.  All we know for certain is that is that he is hurting.  Once in a while, back in the day, it helped to hear someone else say it.

If You Could Read My Mind 
Gordon Lightfoot 

 If you could read my mind, love,
What a tale my thoughts could tell.
Just like an old time movie,
'Bout a ghost from a wishing well.
In a castle dark or a fortress strong,
With chains upon my feet.
You know that ghost is me.
And I will never be set free
As long as I'm a ghost that you can't see. 
                                        
If I could read your mind, love,
What a tale your thoughts could tell.
Just like a paperback novel,
The kind the drugstores sell.
Then you reached the part where the heartaches come,
The hero would be me.
But heroes often fail,
And you won't read that book again
Because the ending's just too hard to take!
                                        
I'd walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three way script.
Enter number two:
A movie queen to play the scene
Of bringing all the good things out in me.
But for now, love, let's be real;
I never thought I could  feel this way
And I've got to say that I just don't get it.
I don't know where we went wrong,
But the feeling's gone
And I just can't get it back. 
                                        
If you could read my mind, love,
What a tale my thoughts could tell.
Just like an old time movie,
'Bout a ghost from a wishing well.
In a castle dark or a fortress strong.
With chains upon my feet.
But stories always end,
And if you read between the lines,
You'd know that I'm just tryin' to understand
The feelin's that you lack.
I never thought I could feel this way
And I've got to say that I just don't get it.
I don't know where we went wrong,
But the feelin's gone
And I just can't get it back!