Don't Look Down
Mr_Yesterday
This emerged throughout December but took a bit too long to post before the new year. So I suppose it’s my New Year’s song…more or less in E. There are (entirely mechanical) rhythm guitar and piano backing tracks in the second zip file in case they’re helpful. They were my click track for practice and performing, but yearn to be replaced with real music.
Best wishes for 2020!
Lyrics
—————
Don’t Look Down
© & (cc)BY D A Ayer 2019-12-18
Look how far we’ve come, and yet so far to go:
[we’re] balanced on the wire between our dreams and status quo.
Tomorrow’s certain fact is not a sight for human eyes;
we have to trust that fortune just around the corner lies
so staring straight ahead I greet the dawn of each new day
as night escapes behind and steals the brilliant stars away
while all around I hear the sound of friends who’ve come this far;
we’re looking up and chanting with one voice:
Don’t look down! Don’t look down!
Don’t look down! Don’t look down!
Look at all we’ve done, and all that’s left to do:
[you] plow the field and sow the crop, but still the weeds poke through.
All good intention leads to virtue, so we once were told,
and scoured away the errant marks that scarred the perfect mold
‘til the products of our hand became the yearnings of our heart,
all unintended features smoothed away by righteous art;
and so we built a city only icons could afford
still looking up and chanting with one voice:
Don’t look down! Don’t look down!
Don’t look down! Don’t look down!
Look how high we’ve climbed to almost reach the sky!
We’ve mastered where and when and how, but still can’t answer “Why?”
Our patient toil and sacrifice have led us to the top
and now there’s nowhere left to go we don’t know how to stop.
Each generation stands a little closer to the edge
and reaches in to push its children higher up the ledge
while clutching dreams their elders can’t begin to comprehend,
they’re standing tall and chanting with one voice:
Don’t look down! Don’t look down!
Learn to fly! But don’t look down!
Don’t look down! Don’t look down!
Don’t look down! Don’t look down!
Best wishes for 2020!
Lyrics
—————
Don’t Look Down
© & (cc)BY D A Ayer 2019-12-18
Look how far we’ve come, and yet so far to go:
[we’re] balanced on the wire between our dreams and status quo.
Tomorrow’s certain fact is not a sight for human eyes;
we have to trust that fortune just around the corner lies
so staring straight ahead I greet the dawn of each new day
as night escapes behind and steals the brilliant stars away
while all around I hear the sound of friends who’ve come this far;
we’re looking up and chanting with one voice:
Don’t look down! Don’t look down!
Don’t look down! Don’t look down!
Look at all we’ve done, and all that’s left to do:
[you] plow the field and sow the crop, but still the weeds poke through.
All good intention leads to virtue, so we once were told,
and scoured away the errant marks that scarred the perfect mold
‘til the products of our hand became the yearnings of our heart,
all unintended features smoothed away by righteous art;
and so we built a city only icons could afford
still looking up and chanting with one voice:
Don’t look down! Don’t look down!
Don’t look down! Don’t look down!
Look how high we’ve climbed to almost reach the sky!
We’ve mastered where and when and how, but still can’t answer “Why?”
Our patient toil and sacrifice have led us to the top
and now there’s nowhere left to go we don’t know how to stop.
Each generation stands a little closer to the edge
and reaches in to push its children higher up the ledge
while clutching dreams their elders can’t begin to comprehend,
they’re standing tall and chanting with one voice:
Don’t look down! Don’t look down!
Learn to fly! But don’t look down!
Don’t look down! Don’t look down!
Don’t look down! Don’t look down!