The Lancean Specificity
Night in the City
It is night in the city and the light is bright
But shadowed now and not quite real like how you feel
When you have been burning the candle at both ends
And what end do you hold on to? Well that depends
On if the center holds and what is holding you
Night in the city of the living and the dead
Who when living were dying then to get ahead
But neither here nor there they found themselves nowhere
And having gone too far now wonder where they are
But I am living here in the city instead
Night in the city at one time was so pretty
But one time looks a lot like another time now
When there have been too many times for me to see
Witnessing firsthand the unfolding of always
And overhearing what the disappointed say
Some of them say the city has gone bad or mad
And then some say the city is not what it was
As it is what it is and it does what it does
While others say the city has seen better days
And yet what day is better to see than today?
But other times and other places interpose
Memories of other times and places like these
Between what was and what will be at what is now
Having been and seen too much I remember those
Things you might have remembered to forget somehow
And it interferes that some of my heres are there
And that some of my nows are then now and again
But I suppose remembering those is just what
I must do and if not forget then at least not
Regret what I cannot forget at least not yet
But when my heart is always I am everywhere
And this is the higher me to which I aspire
Passing time through space to a sense of place by grace
At the center of the universe wherever
I find myself to be so I find myself free
When night in the city is pretty forever
With its elements of earth air water and fire
Reconciled in balance as its seasons revolve
Belonging the city belongs to us because
We and the city are as one as we evolve
And though the city is a place of belonging
We are lonely by nature and lonelier where
So many people are with so many needs there
Being met and unmet in close propinquity
Night in the city and you can feel the longing
I dream back in time to this place and remember
The beauty of the duty of the people who
Built the city for one another to be in
Back in the May I remember in December
As what ends in the city brings what to begin
Things I forgot to remember about somehow
Since one time looks a lot like another time now
But this looks like as good a time as any to
Stop dying trying as the living dying do
And not try anymore at all but doing be
I want to be the higher me alongside you
Because night in the city can still be pretty
When we are the living and it is our city
Along the way to how between nowhere and now
Into the center of the universe and why
Night in the city of the living and the dead
Is here now as our time to live and not to die
We are living tonight in the city instead
It is night in the city and the light is bright
Night in the city of the living and the dead
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMX
But shadowed now and not quite real like how you feel
When you have been burning the candle at both ends
And what end do you hold on to? Well that depends
On if the center holds and what is holding you
Night in the city of the living and the dead
Who when living were dying then to get ahead
But neither here nor there they found themselves nowhere
And having gone too far now wonder where they are
But I am living here in the city instead
Night in the city at one time was so pretty
But one time looks a lot like another time now
When there have been too many times for me to see
Witnessing firsthand the unfolding of always
And overhearing what the disappointed say
Some of them say the city has gone bad or mad
And then some say the city is not what it was
As it is what it is and it does what it does
While others say the city has seen better days
And yet what day is better to see than today?
But other times and other places interpose
Memories of other times and places like these
Between what was and what will be at what is now
Having been and seen too much I remember those
Things you might have remembered to forget somehow
And it interferes that some of my heres are there
And that some of my nows are then now and again
But I suppose remembering those is just what
I must do and if not forget then at least not
Regret what I cannot forget at least not yet
But when my heart is always I am everywhere
And this is the higher me to which I aspire
Passing time through space to a sense of place by grace
At the center of the universe wherever
I find myself to be so I find myself free
When night in the city is pretty forever
With its elements of earth air water and fire
Reconciled in balance as its seasons revolve
Belonging the city belongs to us because
We and the city are as one as we evolve
And though the city is a place of belonging
We are lonely by nature and lonelier where
So many people are with so many needs there
Being met and unmet in close propinquity
Night in the city and you can feel the longing
I dream back in time to this place and remember
The beauty of the duty of the people who
Built the city for one another to be in
Back in the May I remember in December
As what ends in the city brings what to begin
Things I forgot to remember about somehow
Since one time looks a lot like another time now
But this looks like as good a time as any to
Stop dying trying as the living dying do
And not try anymore at all but doing be
I want to be the higher me alongside you
Because night in the city can still be pretty
When we are the living and it is our city
Along the way to how between nowhere and now
Into the center of the universe and why
Night in the city of the living and the dead
Is here now as our time to live and not to die
We are living tonight in the city instead
It is night in the city and the light is bright
Night in the city of the living and the dead
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMX
