'the pearl' lyrics

here are the lyrics to the song:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

the pearl
emmylou harris

o the dragons are gonna fly tonight
they're circling low and inside tonight
it's another round in the losing fight
out along the great divide tonight

we are aging soldiers in an ancient war
seeking out some half-remembered shore
we drink our fill and still we thirst for more
asking if there's no heaven what is this hunger for?

our path is worn our feet are poorly shod
we lift up our prayer against the odds
and fear the silence is the voice of god
and we cry alleluia, alleluia
we cry alleluia

sorrow is constant and the joys are brief
the seasons come and bring no sweet relief
time is a brutal but a careless thief
who takes our lot but leaves behind the grief

it is the heart that kills us in the end
just one more old broken bone that cannot mend
as it was now and ever shall be amen
and we cry alleluia, alleluia
we cry alleluia

so there'll be no guiding light for you and me
we are not sailors lost out on the sea
we were always headed toward eternity
hoping for a glimpse of galilee

like falling stars from the universe we are hurled
down through the long loneliness of the world
until we behold the pain become the pearl
cryin' alleluia, alleluia
we cry alleluia

and we cry alleluia, alleluia
we cry alleluia...

©2000 nonesuch records

"until we behold the pain become the pearl..."

hi.

i sang a song in church yesterday called "the pearl", written by emmylou harris. it's a beautiful reflection on our humanness and the pain and suffering which are part and parcel of living in skin, but that we are not without hope, even if it really seems like it.

i pray that those of you that were there were as moved by the song as i am -- not so much by my performance, i hope, but by what the song speaks to (and perhaps by JimiMac's virtuosic mandolin playing). one reason i like the song is that it won't fit snugly into the 'normal' canon of contemporary christian musical worship expressions -- just like the grain of sand which yields the titular pearl, perhaps -- but instead authentically expresses that being a broken human really does suck most of the time, and that out of those depths is produced a more honest heart-cry of "alleluia". it seems that much christian pop music avoids this subject in favor of happier, more immediately hopeful themes (though, thankfully, there is some some evidence that this is changing).

i found a nice article about these concepts and emmylou's music, specifically her record red dirt girl of which "the pearl" is the opening track. i think i had always dismissed emmylou as just another country singer, based partly on my father's incessant rotation of trio back in 1987. but i picked up wrecking ball (produced by daniel lanois) a few years ago, love it, and have been told that i need to experience more of her lexicon.

i'm on it, like an oyster on a pearl.

sorry...but then again, not so much

hi. sorry for not posting. we were in michigan.

but then again, not so sorry. we were in michigan. i'll tell you all about it in a future post.

i wanna solicit your ideas. the bible church is going to be focusing on LOVE this fall. our worship gatherings will reflect this, and i would love know ideas you have for songs, poems, and other expressions that express this well. obviously, it is a very broad subject, so feel free to roam that vast landscape for any cool creative nuggets. i would love to see people's notion of love to be challenged, expanded, reimagined. what is loving our neighbor? how can we really apply the parable of the 'good samaritan'? what does loving god mean? how is god's love for us manifested in our lives? is it more than just 'knowing' or 'feeling' that god loves us? what are some ways we humans distort love and expressions of love? how does this world actually love well? i'm having a mini- planning meeting about looking at the fall today, so i may know more after that.

help me out. thanks.

SLS & BCS

hi.

those of you with last names stine, falcetta, or carnall will immediately recognize that first set of three letters. for those of you lesser beings, those letters stand for "skinny little shit", the nickname that my mother betsy carnall stine and her cohorts assigned to her beloved frank sinatra.

so i threw some SLS in the cd player the other day and was almost immediately hit with tears, his remarkable voice triggering memories of my mother. there is not a specific song, and there is not a specific memory which comes to mind, but rather kind of general, happy, thankful thoughts of and for her life. that happens occasionally when i think of her. i didn't shed a tear the day she died, nor at her memorial service (just barely). but about every four to six months, something will connect emotionally/mentally and the tears will gather.

but man oh man, the man could sing. he really did make each song his own, and you can hear how much better he did it at 65 than at 30. i am glad to have "inherited" her four-disc set the complete capitol singles collection, and am looking forward to becoming more acquainted with it.

thank you, bets, for modeling taste in good music.