Across the River

This original poem, inspired by the film The Thin Red Line (one of my favorites), was itself the inspiration for one of our favorite songs in concert, Beyond the River. Enjoy!

A gentle sun is drifting down
Through ivory clouds and mellow sky.
Its hazy beams through emerald leaves
Are gleaming in an open eye.

An eye that looks into an eye,
Blackened, starless, still, and dead.
Emerging from its darkened void
A deathly bullet armed with dread.

He also sees the Eyes unseen,
Their even look that twinkles yet
And says in sapphire, fire and song,
“Beyond the river, there is rest.”

The silence shatters like a glass,
And fragile dust returns to dust.
Yet still the soldier looks beyond
And clearly sees with eyes of trust

A tree that grows by riverbanks,
And living streams that lap the sod
And soften mossy beds of sleep,
Awaiting weary sons of God.

Above the hills a singing lark
Is flying in a sunset sky.
The words that whisper paradise:
“After death, you will not die.”