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Seasons of My Heart is an original song written, produced and with lyrics by Paul Robert Thomas with music exclusively commercially licensed to Paul from the album More Folk
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Seasons of My Heart is available to download at all good download stores as well as on Bandcamp
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You can download the album More Folk at all download stores HERE and on Bandcamp HERE
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“Seasons of My Heart” is a haunting, evocative folk ballad that chronicles a Holocaust survivor’s harrowing journey through a Nazi death march and the lifelong psychological aftermath of surviving the unimaginable. Through vivid, stark imagery, the song explores the themes of dehumanization, the loss of innocence, and the agonizing path toward forgiveness.
The song opens in the grueling immediacy of the death march. The protagonist is forced to march barefoot through the biting snow, leaving a trail of “bloody footprints” alongside fellow prisoners described as “ghost scarecrows.” The physical torture of the cold and pain quickly gives way to a profound emotional numbness. The world is sharply divided between the victims (“My sky was black”) and the perpetrators or bystanders (“but theirs was blue”). This section establishes the recurring, agonizing refrain: the physical world may be freezing, but the survivor’s soul is burning in a literal and metaphorical “season in Hell.”
As the lyrics progress, the march transforms into a surreal, nightmarish landscape—a “Way of Sorrows” filled with wasted time, blind saviors, and twisted signs. The physical toll of the march alters the protagonist completely, turning their hair and skin “white as snow.” The imagery shifts to a profound sense of internal execution; the survivor builds a “tall gallows” for their own heart, feeling entirely consumed by the horrors around them. The line “Beneath the sun there’s nothing new” underscores a devastating loss of faith in humanity.
The final movement of the song shifts from the past to the present day, revealing that while the camp was liberated, the survivor’s mind never fully escaped. The sensory details—the faces, the places, and the literal smells of the camp—remain permanently etched in their psyche, refusing to be erased by time.
However, the song reaches its emotional climax not in despair, but in a quiet, radical act of resistance: forgiveness. The repetitive, chanting nature of the closing lines (“I will try to forgive / As long as I live / For it’s the only way”) reveals that forgiveness is not an easy absolution for the perpetrators, but a necessary survival mechanism for the speaker. It is the only way to release the burning “Hell” inside and navigate the changing, painful seasons of a scarred heart.
Folk music is rooted in storytelling and bearing witness. Your use of stark contrasts—red blood and black wind against pure white snow—gives the song a timeless, mythic quality while keeping the historical reality brutal and focused. The transition from the narrative of the march to the internal struggle of living with the memory is incredibly powerful. You’ve done a beautiful thing by preserving his story in song.
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Seasons of My Heart lyrics
Was marching barefoot through the snow
Heading for where I didn’t know
Left my home burning down the lane
Was too cold to worry about the pain
Or the bitter hard solid rain
Or the screams driving me insane
Bloody footprints in the snow
Left by ghost scarecrows
My soul is burning can’t you tell?
It’s another season in Hell
Not caring if I lived or died
Forgetting how to laugh or cry
Shadows floating above their heads
Who really sees the walking dead?
My sky was black but theirs was blue
Maybe one day He’ll forgive you
Long dark roads on pure white snow
But why don’t, why don’t you know?
My soul is burning can’t you tell?
It’s another season in Hell
Was walking the Way of Sorrows
That led me to lost tomorrows
Down paths through waste lands of time
Dead-end-roads with twisted crossed signs
Saviours turned dumb their eyes so blind
Nightmare scenes that still haunt my mind
Hair and skin turned white as snow
The black wind still blows
My soul is burning can’t you tell?
It’s another season in Hell
Was climbing the Hill of Shadows
Up there built my own tall gallows
Hung my heart there for all to see
Felt black eyed vultures eating me
I told the truth you know it’s true
Beneath the sun there’s nothing new
Roses bleeding in the snow
Cannot ever grow
My soul is burning can’t you tell?
It’s another season in Hell
I recall the faces
And all the places
That time cannot erase
I can still taste the smells
From my mind in Hell
That haunt me to this day
I will try to forgive
As long as I live
For it’s the only way
I will try to forgive
As long as I live
For it’s the only way
For it’s the only way
I recall the faces
And all the places
That time cannot erase
I can still taste the smells
From my mind in Hell
That haunt me to this day
I will try to forgive
As long as I live
For it’s the only way
It’s the only way
It’s the only way
Seasons of my heart
Seasons of my heart
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Paul Robert Thomas PRS No. 497904008 (London)
PRS Tunecode: 032265ML ISWC: T-341.172.067-3
Audiosparx Catalogue ID: 1426777 ISRC: US5UL2655133
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You can check out Paul’s complete Music Discovery HERE that includes 53 of Paul’s albums, as well as 569 of Paul’s songs catogorized according to their music genre HERE and you can also read Paul’s interesting and eventful Bio HERE
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Take a tour of Paul’s music site HERE where you’ll find not only great songs, but you can also read about Paul’s meeting with Andy Warhol, the letter that Robert Johnson’s grandson’s sent to Paul, the letter to Paul from Buckingham Palace, Paul’s successful court battle against the London police, Paul’s Dylan concert reviews, articles and much much more!
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Paul is a member of the PRS (London) CAE 497904008
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You can contact Paul via email at paul@paullyrics.com
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