THE DRUMS AGAIN

I wrote these lyrics in 1977, when I was involved with the (successful!) movement against a proposed coastal nuclear power plant in Charlestown, RI. The song came back to me this morning, thinking of the brave ones now speaking out for balance, sanity, and the renewal of faith between earth and mankind.

CHARLESTOWN DRUMS

I will stand from my chair

Slowly I will shame the frozen air,

Set my words flying;

Speak the truth and hope it will appear

Before my dying.

The tires and the tractors shock the silence of the stone

Businessmen recite the words their fathers never owned

Every soul, believing it is ruthlessly alone,

Forgets the future.

I walk beside my children

Toward the light I took for granted as a child

The light of morning

My feet retrace the pathways

With the quickness of a rabbit’s beating heart

Beneath the meadow.

Inside smoky offices the Big Ones make their plans

Replace thoughts of balance with the deity of Man

Leaving to the poets all the reverence for land –

They’re dead, not dreaming.

The silence of the forest is the music

Of the senses breathing slow

You’re bound to listen

The sunrise on the ocean is the promise

Of the wedding of all hearts

Choir of color.

As the constellations weave the magic of the stars,

Brilliant white of Venus and the burning red of Mars,

All the earth is shining with the vision that is ours

If we just listen.

copyright cathy larson sky 2011