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I looked out across |
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The river today |
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I saw a city in the fog and an old church tower |
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Where the seagulls play |
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I saw the sad shire horses walking home |
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In the sodium light |
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I saw two priests on the ferry |
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October geese on a cold winter's night |
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And all this time, the river flowed |
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Endlessly to the sea |
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Two priests came round our house tonight |
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One young, one old, to offer prayers for the dying |
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To serve the final rite |
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One to learn, one to teach |
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Which was the cold wind blows |
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Fussing and flapping in priestly black |
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Like a murder of crows |
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And all this time, the river flowed |
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Endlessly to the sea |
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If I had my way I'd take a boat from the river |
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And I'd bury the old man, |
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I'd bury him at sea |
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Blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the earth |
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Better to be poor than a fat man in the eye of a needle |
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And as these words were spoken I swore I hear |
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The old man laughing |
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'What good is a used up world and how could it be |
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Worth having' |
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And all this time the river flowed |
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Endlessly like a silent tear |
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And all this time the river flowed |
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Father, if Jesus exists, |
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Then how come he never lived here |
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The teachers told us, the Romans built this place |
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They built a wall and a temple, an edge of the empire |
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Garrison town, |
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They lived and they died, they prayed to their gods |
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But the stone gods did not make a sound |
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And their empire crumbled, 'til all that was left |
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Were the stones the workmen found |
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And all this time the river flowed |
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In the falling light of a northern sun |
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If I had my way I'd take a boat from the river |
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Men go crazy in congregations |
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But they only get better |
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One by one |
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One by one... |
