CHORUS:
I know the New Nation that we've been chasing
Isn't all for waste, and
I know You're here when I need You around.
But maybe I'd be stronger if I stayed longer,
Learning right from wrong, or
The other thousand things that I'm figuring out.
She loves the morning.
She loves every part of the day, but especially the morning.
I think it's in the artistic redemption—
The quiet call to lift eyelids & skylids,
The second chances, the third chances,
The fourth chances.
And of all the people who might petition God for another chance,
She has a case.
A case of trophies boasting of the ways she used to move,
Used to sing, used to.
A case of empty bottles & ziplock backs
Testifying to the ways she had been used.
A case of book after wisdom after book,
Bought to be borrowed—and we do.
Her name is J
For the joy that she gives,
For the jewel that she is,
For the Jazz that she lives.
She's bright in every sense of the word;
She's bright because of The Word,
And her Light is my Morning.
CHORUS
How humbling it is that a third of our lifetime is untouchable.
Are we so fragile that for every 16 hours of movement
We require 8 of stillness?
Is the world so heavy that by our dying day we cannot lift it?
Are we so in danger of thinking ourselves invincible
That we must be reintroduced to weakness on a nightly basis?
I think so.
I think often about this,
Especially as I watch her 24 hours trimmed further & further down
Until the ratio is flipped, leaving only one third for her use—
And a painful third.
Still, that third in all its discomfort brings a comfort—
Better yet, a Life—
Like nothing I've seen in all my waking hours.
From the heart of the storm,
From the confusion of the worn
A Revolution has been born,
One that will outlive every sunset
Until the day there is no sunset.
And everything is as the Son said.
CHORUS
credits
from Tactics,
released October 17, 2014
arr. Alma Cook
horns arr. Jack Willson
ac. guitar: Jeff Swanson
Rhodes: Justin Bowse
bass: Chris Thigpen
drums: Sam Jewell
trumpet: Bobby Cooper
a. sax: Jack Willson