Field and A River Lyrics
It's a beautiful night tonight;
The dewdrop trees are damask of silver moonlight,
Even distant traffic's as an ocean to my ear,
And I can look upon all the world from here.
And I can see the distant burning cities,
I can see treetops in the wind,
I can see starlight from other centuries,
But I can't see the field I'm standing in.
From where I'm standing has this field become a maze,
Where each step I take just leads to parting ways?
Should I stand and face the freezing wind until dawn,
Or wait until I hear the voice of God to lead me on?
Chorus
For how long have I spun out my life's fragile strand?
In all I've seen and hoped and learned I wonder who I am.
Am I simply something that these searching eyes can't see?
And Who's that walking on across this windy marsh to me?
Chorus
How did you find me here?
I felt so far away.
I tried my best and I failed
Won't you lead the way? Please?
Chorus
ã Rob Willis 1999 ASCAP
Well, it's six a.m. and I'm sitting here thinking,
My life is being pulled in so many ways.
I love my family and both of my jobs,
But how many things can you do well in just one day?
How long do we live this pace?
Do we get to the finish line to find we've run the wrong race?
What is truly important in this life that we choose?
If we could do it all different, what would I do?
Time with my little girls is so hard to find,
I wake up with dreams of guilt sometimes,
And I go out each morning when they're still in bed;
And come back home in time to tuck them in again.
Chorus
Work with my hands, that's what every man wishes;
Playing music with friends, taking walks by the sea,
Time to lay with my wife and just gaze into her eyes,
But I come home running when I get there she cries.
Chorus
ã Rob Willis 1999 ASCAP
He is sitting in the station with a bottle in a brown paper bag,
He picks up a lit cigarette, he thinks a bit, then he takes a drag;
And he sings aloud just to hear his voice
And to hear the language that his father spoke, when he was young and everything seemed so sure.
And he says, "People don't seem to talk much, anymore."
She is standing in a doorway collecting change with a coffee cup in her hands.
She puts a copy of the morning paper into a bag full of cans.
She's been crying all evening,
But you can pretend you don't even know what tears are for.
She says, "People don't seem to talk much, anymore."
When we've got a hope inside our hearts how can we have nothing to say?
You know Jesus watches weeping, 'cause it's Him that we've turned away.
We are rushing, we are back to back, we are standing side by side;
Our eyes are glazed over like glass, we need a place to hide;
We are standing like an audience,
Hypnotized and trembling to the subway's oncoming roar;
But people don't seem to talk much, anymore.
ã Rob Willis 1999 ASCAP
One man reads the stacks of books ,
One fills the coffee vendor
On a hall one corner past the coldest blast of winter
(He says) "I see you are a father, well you surely know the tale,
of the only one who could clear the way through the winter gale.
(It goes)
Katie is a tractor and all around the town,
For the happy people cleared the way to plow the snow wall down.
The other man, he said, " I never heard that book before;
Aren't books about mythology and elephants and war?
I've got a daughter too, but what she likes I cannot tell,
I'm a little bit too busy, though I think she takes it well." (does she know..?)
Chorus
The snow is spinning 'round outside;
Looks like the winter will be long.
What will we do with our few idle hours?
Who has got it right? And the coffee man goes out into the stormy night.
Chorus
Perhaps she sits home waiting to hear that book again;
While he delivers coffee there ain't no one cheering him;
But sometime before bedtime he might drag through that front door;
And he'll sit down at her bedside and they'll read it through once more
Chorus
ã Rob Willis 1999 ASCAP
I can see that you are hurting and I see you keep it in;
Sitting on the front porch with your hand upon your chin;
There are many beautiful spaces that are not "free to all";
That's way I came to climb your garden wall.
I respected your right to loneliness a little bit to long;
Decided not to talk it out, but now I think that's wrong;
I may be a little clumsy, and I may slip and fall;
But I have come to climb your garden wall.
And I know how you are feeling because there was a time;
When I was locked in lonely, and no one even cared to climb up mine.
I will get through where the vines grow thick and the rain's caught in the leaves;
Though the stones may be rough and sharp, though my shins might bruise and my hands might bleed;
See, the bottom line is I love you, and that may not say it all,
But that's way I've come to climb your garden wall.
ã Rob Willis 1999 ASCAP
When I was five my folks bought a farmhouse,
And we moved in before the first snow.
Held by the hopes of a new-forming family,
Divided by fields from a world gone out of control.
With my pail and shovel I'd go to the hillsides,
And dig out a hole in the cold yellow clay.
I never did know that those moments where treasures,
I was looking for something that was hidden away.
Shay-la-la and the whole world was mine;
Learned to tie shoes and how to tell time;
Wild-flower fields and my eyes filled with wonder,
Shay-la-la-li-lay, they were wondrous days.
Games with Lonnie fired our imagination,
She told us stories and sang us songs.
There I met Susanne down by the river,
And stayed there to dream of the places beyond.
Chorus
On the hard wood floors, hypnotized by the records,
And the big old Gibson that my dad used to play.
Watching the dust float like angels in the sunset,
Dizzy and drowsy from the games of the day.
Those were the days I grew as a dreamer,
There I learned to question it all.
Take time to lie in a warm sunny hayloft,
As this life full of wonder goes on and on.
Chorus
ã Rob Willis 1999 ASCAP
A wall runs through our town and it reaches to the sky,
Separating children that sleep on either side.
On one side is a mansion, on one a shotgun shack,
And any time a brick falls out, we hurry up and put it back.
He reached down and broke down the wall.
One God, one Lord, and one Father to us all.
But as our parents taught us, do we still walk around,
Like a wall runs through our town?
A wall runs through my church, it's rooted deep within.
We judge people by money or the color of their skin.
And we gather up in little groups, we know where we fit in.
When someone new just steps too close you feel the silent tension.
Chorus
A wall runs through my heart and its keeping me from you.
The things that I neglect simply prove what is true.
In keeping up the walls it's really Him that we despise.
We say it's Him we worship, but can we look Him in the eyes?
Chorus
ã Rob Willis 1999 ASCAP
He came into this country with the clothing that he wore,
And nothing in his hand;
He left behind his village, his people, and his history,
To be a stranger in this land.
He had his wife and his children to provide for,
But he had faced great obstacles before;
But when they stopped him at the counter and they took away his name,
They had taken something more.
And we are strangers,
Standing on the shore of uncertainty,
With one foot on the sea of history,
And one foot on the sand;
Planning our way,
Pretending that we can plan a mystery,
Until something finally helps us see,
we are strangers in this land.
He worked sorting mail, 'til he could start his own deli,
In a storefront- where they lived upstairs;
When the War broke out, they were looked on with suspicion,
They were different- that's all anybody cares
And the storm clouds gathered over Europe, there were rumors but who could ever tell,
When it was all said and done, every one he'd ever known
Would be burned in the Nazi fires of Hell.
Chorus
We are refugees and dissidents, fortune seekers, fugitives,
Seeking the horizon of the hope that we pursue,
We are former slaves and servants, released into this wilderness,
Looking for the home that we once had but never knew,
And we wander through this wasteland bearing promises
And we wonder, "Is it wise we came?"
And we glance into the eyes of every stranger,
To find the one who still remembers our true name.
Chorus
ã Rob Willis 1999 ASCAP
Gather 'round my brothers we will not fast today,
Put on the finest clothes you own-
La-la-la-la-la-la
With Joy we'll carry him to his beloved's home
La-la-la-la-la-la
And there will be no sorrow, and there will be no waiting,
No long nights in silence, when we dance at your wedding.
Open up green meadows one hundred miles wide,
La-la-la-la-la-la
Ten thousand flocks of cardinals, invite them all inside,
La-la-la-la-la-la
Our faces will be shining, our hearts will be beating ,
We will drink the cups of healing, when we dance at your wedding.
Lift every voice in free and joyful song,
La-la-la-la-la-la
Feel the moment coming and know it won't be long,
La-la-la-la-la-la
The trees will be clapping, the mountains will be ringing
With long awaited laughter, as we dance at your wedding.
ã Rob Willis 1999 ASCAP
You draw the line, you make it clear,
Who we are and what it is we're doing here;
You tell the truth, you show right from wrong;
And let us know where we go when we're gone;
And it's so simple, let us walk by You,
Let us do the things that we see You do;
And all our fears, and all our doubts,
With Your perfect love, You just come,
And You cast them out.
You walked an earthly road, now it shines with glory,
Put our feet upon your path, and show us how to go;
For You've filled our hearts with a hope so holy;
To be with You, and a thousand years with You is as a day.
You drew each line, You penned each word,
From the laughter of the children to the singing birds;
What pilgrims told will be shown true,
When we finally come to catch a sight of You.
You can't force a tree to bear,
You just yield it to the soil, sun, and season,
In the nurture of the Father's hands;
You can't force a life to change,
Just hand it all to Jesus,
He'll make something of it beautiful,
The way that He had planned
Stretch out your hands before the cross.
Let yourself fall away, let Jesus take your place,
Stretch our your hands, to the weeping world around you,
Gathering the broken ones to One who understands,
So much could be done if we would,
Stretch out our hands.
We've walked in our own ways,
Bearing our own hurt and pain and helplessness,
Buried deep within ourselves
But He Who bore it all says
"Die in Me today and you shall live again!
Only I can give you rest."
Chorus
The smaller I get, the more that I can see,
I see the faces of the world as they pass in front of me,
Once I held myself in high esteem, but now I must refrain,
As I've learned to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Chorus
ã Rob Willis 1999 ASCAP
The broad old trees are brittle now,
Shaken deep and gray;
Blackness has grown broader on the border of the days,
In my silent passage are you window-waiting softly?
I would call across the river,
I would call across the river,
I would call across the river,
But the buildings block the way.
The world is our whetting wheel,
Grinding days to dust;
Mourning it consumes our sparks although it strips our rust;
Left with hours of weariness at each seconds delay,
I would call across the river, but the buildings block the way.
And I love you like a star that's shone,
I am crossing over coming home,
I'm coming home.
The way the Lord longs for His Bride,
And for this age to end;
In the way I long for you I start to understand,
And though time is all I know His timeless word will stay,
And call across the River, when the buildings block the way.
ã Rob Willis 1999 ASCAP