My Soul Rises Still

Words and music copyright ©1984 by Howard Ashby Kranz

Dm7 sus4 Dm7 sus4 Dm7 Am7

1. Deep in the night and close in the heat, a sudden human cry jars my blood with piercing clamor.

Dm7 sus4 Dm7 sus4 Dm7 Am7

But this time it’s only a mocking prankster, and the pain and need of the cry dissolve in hollow laughter.

Dm7 sus4 Dm7 sus4 Dm7 Am7

Still the fear invites me to come inside its helpless place of cold retreat and displaced anger.

Dm7 sus4 Dm7 sus4 Dm7 Am7

And it’s only your faint remembered voice that calls me back within myself to strength so tender.

E Dm7

My soul rises still.

Dm7 sus4 Dm7 sus4 Dm7

2. Lost in the slabs of steel wall shelter in the concrete market where the souls weave days

Am7

and the sun’s strength batters.

Dm7 sus4 Dm7 sus4 Dm7 Am7

It’s hard to hear that small real voice when inside and outside everything is such drone and clatter

Dm7 sus4 Dm7 sus4 Dm7 Am7

They’re telling me that you don’t care, then they turn around and they’re telling you that I don’t matter.

E Dm7

My soul rises still

. Dm7 sus4 Dm7 sus4 Dm7 Am7

3. For far beneath their bottom line the earth’s truth sings in a noiseless voice of the dream that must be:

Dm7 sus4 Dm7 sus4 Dm7

They can laugh at my chains, they can burn my bones, they can break my heart,

Am7

but if I live in you they cannot touch me.

E Am

My soul rises still.