Why We Sing
© 2001 Jeri Corlew
Vocals by me, all unaccompaniment by me, recording engineer: that's my fault too, and...

Inspiration: Big Mick and the Why We Sing threads.

Despair is in our cities and the squalor in the street
Where the grandest dream a soul can have is to find enough to eat
And most of us just walk on past and do not meet their eyes
For a soul just like ours looking back, we'd be hurt to recognise

There are stories in the city, there are stories everywhere
And children suffer horrors from a world that doesn't care
And you'd think their hope would waste away, for who could stand the pain
And you'd think they're just like all the rest, and you'd better think again

For there are souls behind those wizened eyes that have seen the worst of man
And something keeps them going on and giving what they can
Each phoenix spirit waits for passion's fire to give it wing
To find a reason to rise up, and it's why we sing

When we sing a spark within us wakes and is fanned into a flame
To those who hear our spirit's voice, it calls in them the same
And soon that light within us grows and wells up like a spring
And it fills the barren emptiness, and it's why we sing.

Though our hearts, they may be jaded, we still listen for that call
When we find a spark in one soul, we can see it in them all
And whether it's a greater power or a simple human thing
It calls out to the best in us and it's why we sing