Wartime Prayers lyrics

Song information

Artist: Paul Simon
Album: Surprise

Lyrics

Prayers offered in times of peace are silent conversations
Appeals for love or love's release
In private invocations
But all that is changed now
Gone like a memory from the day before the fires
People hungry for the voice of god
Hear lunatics and liars
Wartime prayers, wartime prayers
In every language spoken
For every family scattered and broken

Because you cannot walk with the holy
If you're just a halfway decent man
I don't pretend that I'm a mastermind
With a genius marketing plan
I'm trying to tap into some wisdom
Even a little drop will do
I want to rid my heart of envy
And cleanse my soul of rage
Before I'm through

Times are hard, it's a hard time
But everybody knows all about hard times
The thing is, what are you gonna do?
Well, you cry and try to muscle through
Try to rearrange your stuff
But when the wounds are deep enough
It's all that we can bear
We wrap ourselves in prayer

Because you cannot walk with the holy
If you're just a halfway decent man
I don't pretend that I'm a mastermind
With a genius marketing plan
I'm trying to tap into some wisdom
Even a little drop willdo
I want to rid my heart of envy
And cleanse my soul of rage
Before I'm through
A mother murmurs in twilight sleep
And draws her babies closer
With hush-a-byes for sleepy eyes
And kisses on the shoulder
To drive away despair
She says a wartime prayer