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For Helen Hallmark.

lyrics

Among us there are people who
life has given so much to
they ope their hand to receive the gift
praise and laughter on their lips
on the day they were born
a hundred church-bells shook the morn
money, home and family
making sure they never see the gaping maw of poverty
or a woman standing on the street
like Helen.

I met her when she was young
out by where the stars are hung
leaving home - nowhere to go
struggling against the undertow
holding out her empty bowl
she must go on living anyhow.
As they suffer day by day
these are the lambs on whom people prey.

Holding out her empty bowl
down to the corner she could go
taking drugs so she could live
not the kind the doctors give
Hastings, Princess in the end
no one saw her again.

A rich actor driving down
says “I can’t believe this is my town”
“Who are these people of the night?”
One of them might
have been Helen.

Among us there are people who
life has given so much to
they ope their hand to receive the gift
praise and laughter on their lips
on the day they were born
a hundred church-bells shook the morn
money, home and family
making sure they never see the gaping maw of poverty
or a woman standing there
dirty shoes and messy hair
with a thousand-yard stare...

In this world there is the shrew
in the same world the whale
there are those who much is given to
then there are the rest, who fail.

credits

from Great Songs to Empty Rooms, released January 1, 2005

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Kathleen Yearwood Ordeal image

Kathleen Yearwood Ordeal

Guitarist and singer for over 30 years. Plays folk- concrete music. Structured inprovisations, random acts of bad dance and odd-ience participaction. Smashed glass and naked men. From Slovenia to iceland.

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