Saints and children we have gathered here to hear the sacred story And I'm glad to bring it to you with my best rhyming and rhythm Cause I know the thirsty listen and down to the waters come And the Holy King of Israel loves me here in America And if you listen to my songs I hope you hear the water falling I hope you feel the oceans crashing on the coast of north New England I wish I could be there just to see them, two summers past I was And the Holy King of Israel loves me here in America And if I were a painter I do not know which I'd paint The calling of the ancient stars or a**embling of the saints And there's so much beauty around us for just two eyes to see But everywhere I go I'm looking And once I went to Appalachia for my father he was born there
And I saw the mountains waking with the innocence of children And my soul is still there with them wrapped in the songs they brought And the Holy King of Israel loves me here in America And I've seen by the highways on a million exit ramps Those two-legged memorials to the laws of happenstance Waiting for four-wheeled messiahs to take them home again But I am home anywhere if You are where I am And if you listen to my songs I hope you hear the water falling I hope you feel the oceans crashing on the coast of north New England I wish I could be there just to see them, two summers past I was And the Holy King of Israel loves me here in America