Good friends and neighbors, welcome here
At Woodend, which we all hold dear,
To celebrate the blossoming season
With lots of rhyme and little reason,
With jocund song and merry dance,
Awakening hearts with fresh romance
To springtime's golden circumstance.
 
Our lovely May Queen and her court
Invite you to observe our sport
And revelry, led by the Fool -
To join this day of wild misrule
About the maypole, where, times past
They wound bright streamers round a mast
To bring in luck and hold it fast.
 
And stranger things may here be seen:
A leafy man, clad all in green,
And the Padstow Oss from Cornwall's coast,
Who dies, then springs to life - no ghost,
But living legend, ancient lore,
Revived upon Potomac's shore.
 
These are good spirits that we bring
To perform the ancient rites of spring;
So sing with us, lift up your voices
That all may know how Earth rejoices
When life and light and simple joy
Undo the cold that would destroy.
 
Come, dance with us, in joy and mirth
To celebrate this fragile earth
That once more blossoms and gives birth,
And pray, that when we greet each other
As neighbor, sister, friend or brother,
Cold hatred everywhere shall cease 

And the world know the warmth of peace.