The Bells Of Morning

Tonight I am speechless
 My head is filled with pouring rain
 As the darkness falls on Montreal
 When violence is shrieking
 The city streets will run with pain
 Until the moon can shed no light at all
 And I believe that we have fallen
 In the middle of an old highway
 And the past is rolling over us
 As men begin to understand
 What women say
 They see history reaching out to smother all of us
 So ring the bells of morning
 For sorrow and for shame
 And let the deep well inside each of us
 Swell with outrage
 And those of us who know
 What went before can come again
 Must ring the bells
 We must ring the bells of morning
 I met a man once
 He held himself tighter than a fist
 He was hard and fast in his inflexibility
 He was threatened by the future
 A product of the past
 He was terrified by his own femininity
 We must ring the bells of morning
 We have everything to gain
 And may those of us who comprehend
 Commit our lives to change
 And though you swear
 You can't let yourself be vulnerable again
 Ring the bells
 The bells of morning
 For if we can't face ourselves
 We will never understand
 We can learn to make a cradle
 With these stubborn hands
 And we will hear the echo
 From this shattered land
 When we ring the bells of morning
 I met a woman once
 She told me we might never see the day
 When the violence was overcome
 She said silence is the fuel
 Fear and ignorance the roaring flames
 That burn the freedom out of everyone
 She said ring the bells of morning
 And let none of us pretend
 For if you walk the path of silence
 You might never reach the end
 And those of us who know what went before can come again
 Must ring the bells, the bells of morning
 Oh ring the bells of morning
 Ring them loud and ring them long
 Let the mother tongue of strength
 Be the peaceful language of this song
 And let those ancient voices lead us all into the dawn
 Ring the bells, the bells of morning
 Ring the bells, the bells of morning
 Ring the bells, we must ring the bells of morning