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.