CANTICLE FOR BROTHERS APART

(Updated 11 October 2006)

I have a lot of catching up to do, and as much as I am not that keen on tossing multiple entries out at the same time, it looks like that may be what I need to do. So, "saddle up your horses, we've got a trail to blaze."

This entry is titled "Canticle for Brothers Apart" because I intend for the key feature of this entry to be the lyrics of a song by that name. It is from a musical called "It's Getting Late for the Great Planet Earth" that was performed and recorded by the Continental Singers back in 1972. I have often (though not lately) sung this song as a solo because it is poignant and it is a beautiful song musically.

I want to include it in this blog because it speaks directly to the theme of UNITY.

I am going to post from memory, then later I will update this entry when I can find the lyrics and verify their accuracy. I googled the song, but it is apparently not yet googleable.

So, here we go:

CANTICLE FOR BROTHERS APART
(by Cam Floria (I think))

"I see you standing in your corner
enclosed in walls of sacred stone,
while I watch through painted windows,
just as distant and alone.

"If eyes meet, we smile politely,
thinking definitions, thinking names,
quick to catch the subtle differences;
never seeing we're the same.

"Canticles of separation,
chant the hallowed pious fears,
Beneath our shadowed, lonely altars
we ignore the stifled tears.

"In whitewashed tombs of our distinctions,
fondling bones as if they live,
we offer silences for anguish
finding nothing else to give.

"Oh, why can't we learn?
Tell me why can't we see
that the Body's being broken,
that we're tearing it apart?
It was broken once and mended,
meant to last for all time.

"But when the hand is turned against the eye,
we're crippled, blind, we die

"We break dry bread to eat in shadows,
drinking cups of soured wine,
while the wheatfields lie abandoned
and tangled branches choke the vine.

"Oh, why can't we learn?
Tell me, why can't we see
that the body's being broken;
that we're tearing it apart,
it was broken once and mended
meant to last for all time.

"Oh, heal me with your hands,
let me show you with my eyes,
let the Body grow between us,
let it reach out far beyond,
let the Body that was broken
come together in us now.

"Won't you take my eyes and see?
Give me your spirit to sing.
For together we're the flesh and bone
of the Son of the great High King."