Let Creation Reveal Its Secrets By And By

some of them were dreamers
some of them were fools
who were making plans
and thinking of the future
with the energy of the innocent
they were gathering the tools
they would need to make
their journey back to nature

while the sand slipped
through the opening
and their hands reached
for the golden ring
with their hearts they turned
to each other's hearts for refuge
in the troubled years
that came before the deluge

some of them knew pleasure
some of them knew pain
and for some of them it was
only the moment that mattered
and on the brave and crazy
wings of youth
they went flying around
in the rain
and their feathers
once so fine
grew torn and tattered


and in the end they traded
their tired wings
for the resignation
that living brings
and exchanged love's bright
and fragile glow
for the glitter and the rouge
and in a moment
they were swept before the deluge

let the music keep our spirits high
let the buildings keep our children dry
let creation reveal its secrets by and by
when the light that's lost within us reaches the sky

some of them were angry
at the way the earth was abused
by the men who learned
how to forge
her beauty into power
and they struggled
to protect her from them
only to be confused
by the magnitude
of her fury in the final hour

and when the sand was gone
and the time arrived
in the naked dawn
only a few survived
and in attempts to understand
a thing so simple and so huge
believed that they were meant
to live after the deluge


let the music keep our spirits high
let the buildings keep our children dry
let creation reveal its secrets by and by
when the light that's lost within us reaches the sky

Jackson Browne/Joan Baez: Before the Deluge