[Oe List ...] As we wake

[Tim Casswell]

Dear Colleagues,

On this 7th anniversary I thought I would send you my song lyrics again. I
think it stills feels relevant.
I sang the song today at a small commemorative meeting at the Royal Festival
Hall.

Tim

  As We Wake (after W.H. Auden)
 
cold fires still smouldering on wall street
while hope expires the day and night still meet
in secret dread  we've all been waiting for
dust clouds spread while flames still melt the core
unable to forget what we just cannot remember
the sweet smell of death clouds twilight in September
 
towers burst in consummation of anger, truth and grief
powerful penetrations sink in beyond belief
calculated cruelty inclusive and precise
the shocking beauty of the public sacrifice
in the grip of that habit-forming pain
channel flipping to see it all again.
 
everybody's listening no one's got much to say
except for reminiscing about what they were doing that day
sad flag wavers know it's too late for the parade
it passed by a while ago on the way to the crusade
and everybody knows what we never seem to learn
those to whom evil is done do evil in return
 
meanwhile every lonely heart craves what it cannot own
from the very start it's bred into the bone
no universal love can melt this steel and stone
that pious dove cannot sufficiently atone
for each final message from each desperate mobile phone
searching for a signal that we do not die alone
 
defenceless in the night the world in stupor lies;
little points of light as the lonely evening dies
everybody's talking though few of them are heard
something deeper than revenge seems to have been stirred
just at the point of knowing that our hearts must surely break
a cock is crowing three times as we wake.
 
from the tunnels of conformity crowded commuters come
in uniform deformity to some distant drum
repeat the morning vow in the stiff compulsive game
Everything Will Now Continue On the Same
nothing can release them from the corridors of power
nothing can be done for those who were not in the tower


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