Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Light On A Distant Hill

While this is not exactly biographical, it is symbolic of those images from our early years, whatever they may be, that stick with us all our lives.


Light on a distant hill

A million miles, a million smiles
a million sorrows that knocked me down
home’s any place I just happen to stay
in another nowhere town
But deep in the mine of my memory
Lives a part of my long ago
And it springs to mind
When the day is unkind
Making me want to go
Faint but clear I see it still
one tiny light on a distant hill

An unpainted farmhouse,
poor stony ground
A barn that had seen its best day
Work worn hands on my mother
Dad ploughing the soil
Stopping on Sunday to pray
There was love in abundance
Despite those hard times
There was safety and warmth and content
But something inside
Drove me out of that place
And on to a road that was bent

As a child I recall coming back from the town
Sunday nights with the church service done
And as we turned on to that gray dusty road
Far ahead shone the light that meant home
It was always left burning
when we went away
In that weathered old house on the hill
And the world full of darkness
seemed brighter somehow
just because that small light was there still

As I grew older and started to roam
when I had no where else I could go
I could count on that light
That my mother kept lit
Just in case her loved boy
came back home
then it shone like a beacon
now it beckons me still
though my folks and the farm are long gone
a shopping mall stands
where our farm used to be
and ten thousand light bulbs are turned on

With each of the things that life dishes out
and the bad things we do on our own
we are all of us changed
at the end of the day
sometimes wearied of life to the bone
its never too late to make a new start
that’s what all the reformers would say
but there’s no going back
to undo things we’ve done
just tomorrow
and what’s left of today

A million miles, a million smiles
a million sorrows that knocked me down
home’s any place I just happen to stay
in one more nowhere town
But deep in the mine of my memory
Lives a part of my long ago
And it springs to mind
When the day is unkind
Making me want to go
Faint but clear I see it still
one tiny light on a distant hill
That long ago light on a faraway hill

No comments: