Dana Clark Music

This Is the Harvest
Copyright 2013 Dana Clark    

CHORUS: This is the harvest
Gladly I am reaping what I've sown
Here in the garden
I glory in the gifts my life has grown
Season of plenty
Sprung from seeds I scattered on the wind
Astounding bounty
Fullness of the feast I've gathered in

VERSE: Hungry I once planted when my tears watered the seeds
When the labor almost broke me and there was no guarantee
Still I never once imagined in the stony fields I tilled
This Eden that surrounds me now, its promises fulfilled

CHORUS

VERSE:  I sink my fingers in the soil to touch the dust of stars
From this mud has come the sum of everything we are
The earth our flesh, the rocks our bones, our blood the endless sea
Turning and returning in eternal mystery

CHORUS

Our every hunger richly nourished by the frugal earth
That welcomes death in season and transforms us in rebirth
This never-ending cycle claims each living thing that falls
Our final rest will feed the soil that freely feeds us all

CHORUS

 This Land Belongs to the Ones Who Belong to This Land 
Copyright 2013 Dana Clark

The bones of their fathers lie deep in this desert 
The dust of their mothers, it blows with the sand 
The blood of their children will flow in this river 
This land belongs to the ones who belong to this land 

For thousands of years, they have walked these arroyos 
They've clung to these canyons with hearts and with hands 
Now the wall has gone up and the village is dying 
This land belongs to the ones who belong to this land 

Guilty of nothing but labeled illegal 
These families do what survival demands 
Risking their lives for the sake of their children 
This land belongs to the ones who belong to this land 

My family came when this country proclaimed, 
“Give us your tired, your poor.” 
What right do we have to close that door? 
How can we say, “Not anymore?” 

A guard whose own grandparents once swam this river 
Takes orders that come down a chain of command 
From those who are hungry to feed on our fear 
This land belongs to the ones who belong to this land 

When centuries pass and this age is forgotten 
The moon will still rise, the sierras still stand 
This river, still winding, will no more divide us 
This land belongs to the ones who belong to this land