Van Der Graaf Generator - Childlike Faith In Childhood's End Lyrics
Existence is a stage on which we pass, asleep-walk trick for mind and heart:it's hopeless, I know,but onward I must goand try to make a startat seeing something more than day-to-daysurvival chased by final death.If I believed this the sumof the life to which we've comeI wouldn't waste my breath.Somehow, there must be more.There was a time when more was felt thanknown,but now, entrenched inside my sett,in light more mundane, thought rattlesround my brain;we live, we die... and yet?In the beginning there was order anddestiny but now that path has reached theborder and on our knees is no way to facethe future, whatever it be.Though the forces which hold us in placelast through eons in unruffled gracewe, too, wear the face of creationAs anti-matter sucks and pulsesperiodically the bud unfolds, the bloomis dead, all space is living history.It seems as though time must betray us,yet we're aliveand though I see no God to save us still wesurvivethrough the centuries of progresswhich don't get us very far.All illusion! All is bogus - we don't yetknow what we are... laughing, hopingpraying, joking, Son of Man!With lowered eyes but lifting hearts,we're grains of sandand though, in time, the sea may claim usfor its ownwe are the rocks which root the future -on us it grows!We might not be there to share it ifeternity's a jestbut I think that I can hear itif the next life is the best.Even if there is a heaven when we dieendless bliss would be as meaninglessas the lie that always comes as answer tothe question 'Why do we see through theeyes of creation?'Adrift without a course, it's very lonelyhere, our only conjecture what liesbehind the dark.Still, I find I can cling to a lifeline,think of a lifetime which means more thanmy own one - dreams of a grander thingthan we are,Time and Space hand heavy on myshoulders;when all life is over who can sayno mutated force shall remain?Though the towers of the city are deniedto we men of claystill we know we shall scale the heightssome day.Frightened in the silence -frightened, but thinking very hard,let us make computation of the stars.Older, wiser, sadder, blinder, watch usrun; faster, longer, harder, stronger, nowit comes: colour blisters, image splintersgravitate towards the centre, in finalsplendour disintegrate.The universe now beckonsand Man, too, must take His place...just a few last fleeting secondsto wander in the wasteand the children who were ourselvesmove onreincarnation stills its now perfected songand at last we are freed of the bondsof creation.All the jokers and gaolers, all the junkiesand slavers too,all the throng who have danced a merry tune - human we can all be,but Humanity we must rise abovein the name of all faith and hope and love.There's a time for all pilgrims, and a timefor the fakers too,there's a time when we all will stand aloneand *****;***** to the galaxies -*****, but clothed in the overview... aswe reach Childhood's End we start anew.And though dark is the highwayand the peak's distance breaks my heart,for I never shall see it, still I play my part,believing that what waits for us is thecosmos compared to the dust of thepast...in the death of mere humans life shallstart!+------------------------------------------------+---------------------------
