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