WAKE
------music and lyrics copyright (C) 1986 by Ernest Clark

!lj  1st AW draft 2/28/86

    Dm         C          G7               A
The sun pauses briefly to peek through the clouds
  Dm         C            Dm  A
Today before touching the sea,
  Dm             C                G7           A
A quick flash of brilliance comes lighting the gloom
    Dm          C           Dm
And rain slowly melting the snow.
          F         G             A               Dm
  And the season is passing, yes, spring's on its way.
      F            G              A
  The snow and the clay show some green,
          F            G               A           Dm
  But the house on the hillside stares down at the sea
                     C        Am7  Dm
  All alone--for her builders have gone.


The windows stand empty to water and wind;
The books share their shelves with the wrens.
The plates and the glasses have long lost their war
With yesteryear's ivy and thorn.
  But the swords are all missing, the bagpipes are gone;
  No photograph stands in its frame.
  Though little is absent, the house stands a shell
  All alone--for her builders have gone.


The ocean ignores, in eternal unrest,
A thousand more houses and hills;
The scars where the last transports lifted away
Are clad now with sapling and weed.
  For the battle now rages in otherworld skies,
  As a people choose future and fate;
  But the house keeps on waiting, for a past long since lost;
  All alone--for her builders have gone.