Gethsemane

In Gloucester Cathedral, on Saturday night

I came to your flower show, blown like a kite

And I stood by the tombstones, and gazed at the lights

On the altar

And the horse-faced old ladies and tweedy-toned men

Of county society they came and they went

With pamphlets and leaflets of Christian events

For the fall

But ain't it all just like Jesus

Crying in the rain?

Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?

Oh the half-a-crown programmes on sale at the door

Were clutched in the teeth of the rich and the poor

As they swayed in an undertone conscience-free

Forward together

And the outstretching hands of the swains of the Lord

Sold the communing commuters the word

With LPs of Mary and photos of God

In the hall

But ain't it all just like Jesus

Crying in the rain?

Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?

Oh the flowers hushed the air as the columns advanced

To the clinking of coins in a ritual dance

On flagstones that ached for a chance of a chance

Of escaping

And the mystical statues looked down so depressed

At the endless possessors becoming possessed

And the costumed confessors who never confessed

To the wall

But ain't it all just like Jesus

Crying in the rain?

Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?

Oh I saw a blue hair-rinse, I saw a black tooth

I saw a false face in a telephone booth

And the stark white-faced roses that screamed out the truth

Of their dying

And a walrus's dreams and a carpenter's love

Absorbed like a hand in a great rubber glove

And flown like a flag over battlefields

Factories and all

Ain't it all just like Jesus

Crying in the rain?

Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?

Oh I dodged the collection box choirboy and out

To the streets where the wind shook my hair with a shout

And the dusty-faced daisies were blowing about

So freely

And Christ in the ruins was wandering again

As he walked with the beggars and talked to the lame

And danced with the children and sailors who came

At his call

But ain't it all just like Jesus

Crying in the rain?

Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?

Ain't it all just like Jesus

Crying in the rain?

Ain't it all just like Nazareth again?

Font: Musixmatch

Compositors: Alistair Ian Stewart