GOD SPEED (The Snow Goose) This song will mean little to those who have never read The Snow Goose. Originally published in 1940 as a newspaper short story, and then as a book in 1946, this is the work of the American writer Paul Gallico (1897-1976). It hinges on the relationship between a solitary artist and a young girl who seeks his help in caring for an injured bird. Gallico used a true story from a previous book about a couple who had tended and tamed a wounded snow goose on the Essex Marshes. Philip, the painter, is based on Gallico's firend, the artist Peter Scott, son of Captain Robert Falcon Scott (of the Antarctic), who, like Philip, lived in a light house - but at Sutton Bridge on the Wash. Peter's mother, the sculpor Kathleen Bruce, made a bust of John Montagu which stands in the hallway at Beaulieu. Silver white a symphony of water, wind and light where a saltmarsh meets the sea sanctuary Grey and green And the painter's eye sees every hue between and every brushstroke's reeds or rain to ease his pain Now it's my time, My turn to hold you My time, My turn to set you free God-speed Black and white the mighty wings that never tired in flight that crossed an ocean in one bound brought to ground Pearl and gold with violet eyes to fire a heart grown cold brings her burden to be healed to be revealed Black and red the port aflame, so many good men dead with peppered sail and angel's wings salvation brings Crimson blue a saltmarsh sunset - gulls fly through the snow goose has no tale to tell just farewell | 
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