Amazing...I knew I'd bought the lyric booklet for this album at a used record sale about ten years ago, and I was able to find it in less than ten minutes!

RETURN TO THE LAND
words and music (c)1982 Elmer Beal, Jr. (BMI)

There comes a time when I look out to find
That the hungry are hungry again.
When did I last think to ask
How to help ease their pain?
When hope leaves, I know I get hopeless,
Like a spark in the rain.
And when castles crumble, it makes me feel humble,
As though I'm the one who's to blame.

CHORUS
But nothing is won when the crying is done
Till your friends take you up by the hand.
Return to the earth; you feel your own birth come again.
When your bridges are burned,
You try to return to the land.

South of the border, the coffee beans order,
The coca is turned to cocaine,
Tons of bananas and miles of the sweet sugarcane
Grown for the pleasure of some by others who strain.
And long do they stand and stare at the land
That they work for another man's gain...

CHORUS

And there is the other, forgot by his brother,
Alone at the end of the day.
Searching in vain for the work that would gain him his pay,
He tries to forget all the strangers he's met by the way.
And there in the dark, a voice in his heart
Calls him home to a place far away.

CHORUS

And when you are through,
It always forgives you, the land.


Here's what Gordon has to say about the writer and the song:

Elmer Beal has been a teacher, woodcutter, farmer, songwriter, and travelling singer. I've toured with him in the past, and he's goood, thoughtful company. He still teaches at College of the Atlantic, runs a restaurant, and tours with Maine's favorite acoustic group, "Different Shoes."

While watching a BBC show on the "third world," a few years back, he was wondering at the strong connection he felt to the migrant workers of those countries -- and realized that the connection was the land they both worked, and that supported them.

Aloha,
Mark