Hard upon my journey

I didn’t see the signs

I brought with me a passenger

I thought I’d left behind

The mirror to my innocence

My vanity and pride

Fear foremost the dark companion of my mind

Summoned to the temple,

beneath the tomb of kings,

I walked the empty streets

beside a crystal pyramid

I came upon a messenger

 who begged me for a meal

sanctified in charity

this is what he did reveal

he said son

you’re riding with the devil preacher

your troubles just begun

until you make of this your teacher

 

Stumbling at the threshold

For deliverance I cried

And fled into the centre of the storm

Where the tracks met the road

I knelt and burned my pleas

There between the iron and the stone

by dawn I made my peace with hell

and I dreamed that I was called before the lord

on a moonlit night

by a bayou bright

I played my songs for him

And in reply, this is what I heard.

he said

  

and the stage shall be your sanctuary

from without and from within

for those that hide the lie

of endless night

in sweet delight

the lesson there to learn

is to be lived

knowing it is what it is

 

the cup that has been broken

cannot be refilled

it draws no water from the well

he said

he that would seek to cast the devil out

must first look

inside to see the devil in themselves

for the stage was made your sanctuary

and the truth has set you free

as dark within the light

resides between both day and night

the better to observe the lesson lived

knowing it is what it is

 

I said son

You’re riding with the devils preacher

You’re riding with the devils teacher

 

(c) 2020-2022 Barry/Read/Stormcellar