Sting All This Times Lyrics

All This Times 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 by
one
One by one...