All songs
copyrighted
by David Rood
except as noted.

The Book

Story

Here I was going for the introduction-reprise that holds together a concept album or a broadway musical.

I'm a book lover, so I've always liked the books you see on tv where characters literally leap off the page and interact with the reader. Such a book should have an outward form as fine as its contents.

Lyrics

Part I

There's a book on the shelf with a pretty cover
A portrait engraved in leather
And when I turn the page, all the letters rearrange
Forming in the figure of a bird

And the bird flies out
It gives a hopeful cry
The hunter that rises to pray
It's the motion of the mind that brings the dead to life
In the dawning of our dying day

There's a leaf in a pot, so gamely growing downward
Someday it will sprout a seed
And the dew in the morning has brought a broken bird
That grafts the leaf as a wing

And the bird flies out
Pits its strength against the air
An athlete whose motion is prayer
It's the hope in your heart that hold you on the ground
You don't need it when you are up there

Part II

Now the book gathers dust; I haven't read it in so long,
I can't remember what it said
Oh, but I hope that my childhood isn't gone
Now when I reach inside my head

And a song flies out
In quiet desperation
Life must be more than illusion
I want to feel a joy, any kind of joy
I want you to lead me to the sun

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