When they turn out the stars.

This hails from somewhere between August to December 1977.
I found three revisions of this particular piece, so I’ve been a bit selective and chosen the one that I feel now, after all these years, makes more sense.
One had lapsed into a remarkable state of pretentiousness and was going on about; “a five-dimensional expanding universe…” and being; “on the eve of the continuation…”
That one had the date of 17, 12, 77 on it so it was presumably the one that I counted as being “final” but I’ve plumped for the middle version here. The other version, and again I’m presuming that it’s the earlier version, was dated 2, 8, 77 and is much shorter – mercifully, some might say.
The middle version, which curiously enough only exists as a “carbon copy” doesn’t have a date on it, hence my assumption that it’s somewhere between August to December, ’77.
Yes, I added some 21st century punctuation.

When they turn out the stars.

When time brings changes,
When they turn out the stars,
There’ll be no future that could be ours.
As blood-stained hands,
Grip the rusted iron bars.
The eyes that cried have no more emotion to hide,
Love is on the ebb tide,
The rhyme is waning,
The metre straining,
The moment moves, the truth to hide.

When they turn out the stars,
On that terrible day,
When the music is lost and no one dare play,
Then we’ll all be neatly packaged and stamped,
And those who don’t fit,
Will be sent far, far away.
There wouldn’t be us,
But just you or me,
We’d be lost in the sea,
When they turn out the stars.

When you turn out as stars,
Drifting into past suns
Playing fast on the wind,
Being all unto one.
And you see all the answers,
Fade into past glory,
You sing higher questions,
You make up the story.
Ambitions fulfilled
Only building on highest dreams,
Never noticing how your edifice,
Is blocking off the life-giving sunbeams.

Then they turn out the stars,
And all appears dark in your mind,
Then you will find,
The solid light of future scope,
Cancelling fears
But leaving no hope.
When all about you,
Turns inward,
Remember a day in the not-too-distant future.
The dreams that you leave,
Must weave the new plans to live for.