On The Other Shore

Bobby BeauSoleil

(written 2011; revised 2020)

 

A song for the dead, those precious souls I have known in life

who left this world ahead of me, and especially in honor of Gary Allen Hinman.

 

My dear brother, lost so long ago

I search for you in dream

A vastness so high, far and wide

and deep as eternity

… deep as eternity

 

Your silent gaze pierces into me

yet you can't see what I’ve become

You couldn't know the hell I've seen

or how Heaven has touched me

… oh how heaven has touched me

 

I prayed a prayer you would forgive

that terrible way I broke you

My answer came that you had no need

to forgive when you had never blamed

… when you had never blamed

 

(chorus: )  Lay me down, lay me down gently

lay me down on the other shore

Lay me down, lay me down gently

lay me down on the other shore

… lay me down on the other shore

 

My beloved, we dance in the lovelight

twirling and laughing like children

Hearts afire, a beating of drums

Holy song, we are its melody

… we are its melody

 

Blindly we leapt, hearts in our hands

into a fearsome storm

We meant to show the people some new ways

and oh the price we would pay

… oh the price we would pay

 

Without a warning, you were suddenly gone

like a curl of smoke in a breeze

In this world we wept, while the angels rejoiced

We must find one another again

… we must find one another again

 

(chorus: ) Lay me down, lay me down gently

lay me down on the other side

Lay me down, lay me down gently

lay me down on the other side

… lay me down on the other shore

 

Body and soul, I ache for tender mercies

sweet water to ease my thirst

a kind hand to stroke my brow

and to bathe me in blamelessness

… bathe me in blamelessness

 

I fly at last like an arrow

into the heart of the mystery

birthless, deathless, where nothing is not

and all is held in a word

… all is held in a word

 

Bear me up on wings of love

carry me high above the carnival

far beyond stagnant seas of regret

and across the chasm of pain

… across the chasm of pain

 

(chorus: ) And lay me down, lay me down gently

lay me down on the other shore

Lay me down, lay me down gently

lay me down on the other shore

... Lay me down on the other shore

 

 

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