I Love the World

The roll of distant thunder breaks, the afternoon of silence wakes

They hurry through from Petergate as if they know this dance

In fury blind, I drive at night across the moors, the open roads

Beneath the freezing starry skies, racing in some trance

These cities are illusions of some triumph over Nature's laws

We've seen the iron carcass rust and buildings topple into dust

And as the waters rise, it seems we cling to all the rootless things

The Christian lies, technology, while spirits scream and sing

Oh God I love the world

Well I never said I was a clever man but I know enough to understand

That the endless leaps and forward plans will someday have to cease

You blind yourselves with comfort lies like lightning never strikes you twice

And we laugh at your amazed surprise as the Ark begins to sink

This temple that is built so well to separate us from ourselves

Is a power grown beyond control, a will without a face

And watching from outside I wish that I could wash my hands of this

But we are locked together here, this bittersweet embrace

Oh God I love the world

And if one day the final fire explodes across the whitened sky

I know you've said you'd rather die and make it over fast

With courage from your bravest friends, waiting outside for the end

With no bitterness but an innocence that I can't seem to grasp

I know somehow I will survive - this fury just to stay alive

So drunk with sickness, weak with pain, I can walk the hills one last time

Scarred and smiling, dying slow, I'll scream to no one left at all

I told you so, I told you so, I told you so . .

Oh God I love the world