oh say can you see
we the people are gathering
by the dawn's early light
we have come
what so proudly we hail
is the rights of all humanity
and until the twilight's last gleaming
we shall not give up
on the broad striped
pathways of hope
and bright stars of the future
when the rocket's red glare
will make no sky perilous
and the bombs bursting in air
will be forgotten
when the proof through the night
will be a compassionate understanding
and the flags that are still there
will be banners of peace
and the only star spangled banner yet waving
will be heaven's cosmos unfurling
and the land of the free
will be every nation on earth
and the home of the brave
will be every heart pounding
for ever
and ever
amen

i am forging my heart
from the great open spaces
i am shaping my heart like the wind
i am curling from mountains
down wide river valleys
i am finding my way to the sea

i am drifting like sand
 rolling on waves
i am whispering up canyons
and howling over land
i am screaming in the cities
turning in the towns
i am churning over lakes
and sleeping in gardens

i am forging my soul
from the great open spaces
i am raising my song
on the breeze

so blow you old
you wind wind blow
blow you old you wind
wind blow

carry me
across the water
over the dunes of the sun
where the sky meets the sand
it's there i'll make my stand
and cease to roam

people come
people go
some hang around awhile
others you never know
so blow you old
you wind wind blow

seasons come
seasons go
round and round
and round they turn
that's all you need to know
so blow you old
you wind wind blow

i am forging my heart
from the great open spaces
i am writing my name
on the wind

i remember coming home from school
to find Martin Luther King on the TV
telling us about his dream
and we were moved

i was a Canadian boy
who wanted to be president
until a few months later
when JFK took a bullet to the head
and i went hiding under my bed
certain bombs would fall

it was then i learned what being a Canadian meant
it meant being apart from it all
but somehow tuned in

a few years later
our hometown streets filled up with American draft resistors
many of whom took the opportunity to engage in the popular Canadian pasttime
of telling the US to go to hell

those kids became Canadians
joined our schools
joined our churches
became business men
family men
activists
and helped us define our culture
as something other than "American"

we were going to feed the world
we were going to educate the children
we were going to heal the sick
and be THE model world community
but we let something get in the way
we let the wealth of the few
take priority over the needs of the many

and who cares if the children are hungy
just give me my back taxes
i want the big screen TV i saw in Sears the other day
you know my car costs a lot
i gotta keep it clean
and i ain't gonna give that squeegee kid a dime
if she leaves a single streak

and even in the country
where the pickin's have been slim
there's plans afoot to scoop the place up
and turn it into condos

and no one gives a hoot about Taiwan
or even the middle east
no one gives a hoot what goes on down the block
as long as it stays away from thier door

and we're all feeling the loss of the ozone layer
so far the protest has been mild
but the whole damn world
should be in the streets

me
i gotta have my email
and more than enough to eat
i like that cablevision
it helps get me to sleep
and keeps my head from thinking about things
that put a fire in my blood

we were gonna save the world
we were gonna go back to Eden
instead we joined the race
buying cabins in the country
and putting the kids
through the brain washing camps called schools
and i only hope we raised them strong enough
to carry the load
when all the chores we left undone
get piled onto them

and we were gonna turn rifles into garden hoes
we were gonna turn our technical expertise to feeding the poor
until there were no poor no more

and the rich were gonna give
until the poor started giving back
and then the rich were gonna give some more
and be diggin every moment
on their new found drug of choice
human compassion

we were gonna build a new world
not give into some new world order
to take us back over the same old struggle
that led us to this place
we were gonna free ourselves of the yoke of other's industry
and live lives of individual liberty

our grandfather's and their brothers
were worked to death in mines
whipped in farmer's fields
blown up building railroads
killed by deadly viruses
and even fed to ovens
for simply being different
or demonstrating their freedom
to give in now
would be to betray the gene that shaped us
to give in now
is suicide

we were gonna feed the world
and it's high time we got to it

i'm having fantasies about becoming a celebrity
i can see my brilliant light
streaming across the southern sky

and it scares the hell out of me
because shooting stars
are stars that have already fallen

pretty woman in a big car
gives me that smile

i imagine her circling the block
picking me up

but if that was really happening
i'd have no time to write these. . .

woops!
gotta go