All This Time Lyrics by Sting

All This Time Lyrics


    I looked out across
    The river today
    I saw a city in the fog and an old church tower
    Where the seagulls play
    I saw the sad shire horses walking home
    In the sodium light
    I saw two priests on the ferry
    October geese on a cold winter's night

    And all this time, the river flowed
    Endlessly to the sea

    Two priests came round our house tonight
    One young, one old, to offer prayers for the dying
    To serve the final rite
    One to learn, one to teach
    Which was the cold wind blows
    Fussing and flapping in priestly black
    Like a murder of crows

    And all this time, the river flowed
    Endlessly to the sea
    If I had my way I'd take a boat from the river
    And I'd bury the old man,
    I'd bury him at sea

    Blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the earth
    Better to be poor than a fat man in the eye of a needle
    And as these words were spoken I swore I hear
    The old man laughing
    'What good is a used up world and how could it be
    Worth having'

    And all this time the river flowed
    Endlessly like a silent tear
    And all this time the river flowed
    Father, if Jesus exists,
    Then how come he never lived here

    The teachers told us, the Romans built this place
    They built a wall and a temple, an edge of the empire
    Garrison town,
    They lived and they died, they prayed to their gods
    But the stone gods did not make a sound
    And their empire crumbled, 'til all that was left
    Were the stones the workmen found

    And all this time the river flowed
    In the falling light of a northern sun
    If I had my way I'd take a boat from the river
    Men go crazy in congregations
    But they only get better
    One by one
    One by one...

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