KYRIE FOR PHILOMENA

words and music copyright ©1988 by Howard Ashby Kranz

G C D G C G C
Bless me! so this is my old church. It’s been ten years since I last came.

G C D G C G C G
It seems that all the outward signs are different but the substance is the same.

D C
Nobody knows me here, except this old virgin, where
Am D
I used to sit for hours, as if praying.

C G C G
Lord, have mercy.

G C D G C G C
Foggy-eyed altar boy gazed deeply into the stained glass.

G C D G C G C G
Me and my holy ghost dreamed of the worlds we’d bring to pass.

D C
And now I’ve gone so far I don’t know what the answers are,

Am D
don’t even know what questions I could ask.

C G C G
Lord, have mercy.

C D G C G
Kyrie eleison. (2x)

G C D G C G C
My soul can’t come home here. These days my head’s too clear to grieve

G C D G C G C G
over the displaced saints, or the dreams that I could not achieve.

D C
And I know myself too well; I have seen my own ways fail

Am D
again and again, and yet I still believe.

C G C G
Lord have mercy.

C D G C G
Kyrie eleison. (3x)