All This Time Lyrics

All This Time lyrics

I looked out across 

The river today, 

I saw a city in the fog and
an old church tower 

Where the seagulls play. 

I saw the sad shire
horses walking home 

In the sodium light 

I saw two priests on the
ferry 

October geese on a cold winter's night 



And all this
time, the river flowed 

Endlessly to the sea. 



Two priests
came round our house tonight 

One young, one old, to offer prayers for
the dying 

To serve the final rite, 

One to learn, one to teach,


Which way the cold wind blows 

Fussing and flapping in priestly
black 

Like a murder of crows 



And all this time, the river
flowed 

Endlessly to the sea 

If I had my way I'd take a boat from
the river 

And I'd bury the old man, 

I'd bury him at sea 



Blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the earth 

Better
to be poor than a fat man in the eye of a needle 

And as these words were
spoken I swear I hear 

The old man laughing, 

'What good is a used
up world, and how could it be 

worth having' 



And all this
time the river flowed 

Endlessly like a silent tear 

And all this
time the river flowed 

Father, if Jesus exists, 

Then how come he
never lived here. 



The teacher told us, the Romans built this
place 

They built a wall and a temple, an edge of the empire 

Garrison town, 

They lived and they died, they prayed to their gods


But the stone gods did not make a sound 

And their empire
crumbled, 'til all that was left 

Were the stones the workmen found 



And all this time the river flowed 

In the falling light of a
northern sun 

If I had my way I'd take a boat from the river 

Men
go crazy in congregations 

But they only get better 

One