Lyrics to Rob's Folk Songs
From the Thirteen Petalled Rose CD
Chesapeake Song
©2006 Rob Northrop
Your rivers are brown,
And your sky’s a dull gray.
Good topsoil runs off
The fields to the Bay.
And poison it spews
From your factories and cars.
It hazes in the sun,
And it blocks out the stars.
It’s been twenty years
Since I came to lend a hand.
At saving the Chesapeake,
By healing the land.
But the problems much deeper
Than first we were told.
For its greed, power and arrogance
That are in control.
From the capitol steps
To the corporate halls.
From the county courthouses,
To the shopping malls.
You’ve been bought and sold,
Its just one big lie.
That you can tare down
The land for money,
And then buy back paradise.
Oh you must say I haven’t
A right or a call.
To be pointing a finger
At anyone at all.
But I stared in the mirror,
When I wrote down this song.
It’s for me and for you,
We both know right from wrong.
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Chesapeak Song (pdf)
Thirteen Petalled Rose
©2006 Rob Northrop
I‘ve been thinking like a mountain,
Feeling like the streams,
Living in the scared hoop of the universal dream,
I’ve been standing ‘neath the tree of life,
With its branches spread out wide,
And it welcomes and shelters me, and
Does not question why.
Thank you mother for gentleness,
Thank you father for my soul,
Thank you brother for enduring,
All the lies that we were told.
Thank you daughter for your grace,
And the dignity you share,
Thank you friends and lovers for compassion,
Your spirit makes me whole.
Thank you moon, and sun and stars,
You are the window to my soul,
You are the pages to the book,
The story that will unfold.
Thank you rhythm, rhyme and melody
You are my life line,
Thank you Jesus for your passion,
You are a friend of mind.
I can hear you in the bird song,
Feel you presence in the breeze,
On the darkest night, in the star light,
Your spirit still speaks to me.
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Thirteen Petalled Rose (pdf)
Virginian’s Lament
©2006 Rob Northrop
When the wind blows over the mountain forest,
Down to the valley
And out to the plains,
And it swirls, and spins, and twists into devils,
Startles the cattle,
And forecasts the rain.
Then its summer in Virginia,
Hot hazy days, and cool summer rains,
We’re leaving in the morning,
And her heart will always remain.
Now when the cool crisp air turns its head toward winter,
Fog settles in the valley,
And the sky is crystal blue.
And the mountains are ablaze,
In a rage of color,
And the smell of hearth fires fills the air.
Then its autumn in Virginia,
But we’re four months away out on the plains,
Where the wind never rests,
And the snow is already blowing.
She is staring out my window,
And wishing she were home.
In the stillness of the evening,
A storm clouds comes stealing,
Opens up its heart blood,
And snow settles on the land.
And there’s a quiet in the countryside,
And laughter by the fireside,
As the earth is put to sleep,
Beneath a blanket of snow.
It’s winter in Virginia,
Our lights are turned down low,
And we’re sittin’ ‘round the stove.
We’ve been talking to some friends,
About the big sky country,
The high plains of Wyoming,
And how good it is to be back home.
Download lyrics to
Virginian's Lament (pdf)