Well I'll be damned here comes your ghost again
You told me that years ago
Where's the lady I used to know
Now that I need you most

In New York the people who heard you were half of a million strong
But now the times that you knew are gone
And with them a certain innocence
Leaving only a ghost

The message you had to give us is worth the repeating
And the times surely call for it
But it hasn't been listened to
By those who should know

I don't remember when I heard you the first time
But it won't be the last time
Not since you told me of diamonds and rust
Long long ago

As I remember I once called your poetry lousy
But I didn't hear what it had to say
How can I reach you now
That old booth is no more

In Nineteen Hundred And Seventy-Five you dared to remember
One certain December
When I was living in Washington Square
(laughs) Those were the days

Now I see you on the stage with Bobby and his underground band
Now you're calling out across the sea to London from my resident land
How you've cried out in protest of evil and its injurious hand
Speaking strictly for me we never did quite understand

Long ago I said I wasn't nostalgic
Because I thought the past was wasted time
But now I know I must learn from it
If my life's to go on

And if diamonds and rust remembered are all that is left to us
Then sorrow stands next to us
And that's why you should probably smile
After I'm gone