Weeping

[HeeBGBz]

Weeping

I knew a man who lived in fear.
It was huge, it was angry, it was drawing near.
Behind his house, a secret place
Was the shadow of the demon he could never face.
He built a wall of steel and flame
And men with guns, to keep it tame.
Then, standing back, he made it plain
That the nightmare would never ever rise again.
But the fear and the fire and the guns remained.

It doesn't matter now.
It's over anyhow.
He tells the world that it's sleeping.
But as the night came 'round
I heard it's lonely sound.
It wasn't roaring, it was weeping.

And then one day the neighbors came.
They were curious to know about the smoke and flame.
They stood around outside the wall,
But of course there was nothing to be heard at all.

"My friends," he said, "we've reached our goal.
The threat is under firm control.
As long as peace and order reign
I'll be damned if I can see a reason to explain,
Why the fear and the fire and the guns remain."

It doesn't matter now.
It's over anyhow.
He tells the world that it's sleeping.
But as the night came 'round
I heard it's lonely sound.
It wasn't roaring, it was weeping.

This song just sort of fit the moment. It's off of Josh Groban's new cd Awake. It's an old South African apartheid anti-war song. With backups by Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Vusi Mahlasela. Most excellent. This cd was released on election day. I was woo hooing all day long. Voted and emoted.

Free listen:
http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainment/groban_cd.html

[grasswire]

1. In the same vein....

...a poem that fits the day, written by Unitarian minister Lynn Ungar:


Come down from the hills
Declare the fighting done.
Be bold -- declare victory,
even when the temple is wrecked
and the tyrants have not retreated,
only coiled back like a snake
prepared to strike again.

Come down. Try to remember
a life gentled by daily acts
of domestic faith -- the pot
set to boil, the bed made up,
the table set in calm expectation
that when the sun sets
we will still be here.

Come down and settle.
Unlearn the years of hiding.
Light fires that can be seen for miles,
that dance and spark and warm
the frozen marrow. Set lamps
in the window. Declare your presence,
your loyalties, the truths
for which you do not expect to have to die.

It would take a miracle you say,
to carve such a solid life
out of the shell of fear.
I say you are the stuff
from which such miracles are made.

[HeeBGBz]

3. Excellent

"I say you are the stuff
from which such miracles are made."

[LeftishBrit]

2. I've been thinking of this, written in 1846(!) by Charles Mackay

There's a Good Time Coming

There's a good time coming, boys,
A good time coming:
There's a good time coming, boys,
Wait a little longer.
We may not live to see the day,
But earth shall glisten in the ray
Of the good time coming.
Cannon-balls may aid the truth,
But thought's a weapon stronger;
We'll win our battle by its aid:
Wait a little longer.

There's a good time coming, boys,
A good time coming:
The pen shall supersede the sword,
And right, not might, shall be the lord,
In the good time coming.
Worth, not birth, shall rule mankind,
And be acknowledged stronger.
The proper impulse has been given:
Wait a little longer.

There's a good time coming, boys,
A good time coming:
Hateful rivalries of creed
Shall not make their martyrs bleed
In the good time coming.
Religion shall be shorn of pride,
And flourish all the stronger;
And Charity shall trim her lamp:
Wait a little longer.

There's a good time coming, boys,
A good time coming:
War in all men's eyes shall be
A monster of iniquity
In the good time coming.
Nations shall not quarrel then
To prove which is the stronger,
Nor slaughter men for glory's sake:
Wait a little longer.

[HeeBGBz]

4. I like this part

"Cannon-balls may aid the truth,
But thought's a weapon stronger;"