Who Will Answer?

Ed Ames

Written by Davis / Aute



(Chanted, with increasing melody)

From the canyons of the mind,

We wander on and stumble blindly

Through the often-tangled maze

Of starless nights and sunless days,

While casting for some kind of clue

Or road to lead us to the truth,

But who will answer?



Side by side two people stand,

Together vowing, hand-in-hand

That love's imbedded in their hearts,

But soon an empty feeling starts

To overwhelm their hollow lives,

And when we seek the hows and whys,

Who will answer?



High upon a lonely ledge,

a figure teeters near the edge,

And jeering crowds collect below

To egg him on with, "Go, man, go!"

And who will ask what led him

To his private day of doom,

And who will answer?



On a strange and distant hill,

A young man's lying very still.

His arms will never hold his child,

Because a bullet running wild

Has cut him down. And now we cry,

"Dear God, Oh, why, oh, why?"

And who will answer?



(Full melody the rest of the song)



If the soul is darkened by a fear it cannot name,

If the mind is baffled when the rules don't fit the game,

Who will answer? Who will answer? Who will answer?



In the rooms of dark and shades,

The scent of sandalwood pervades.

The colored thoughts in muddled heads

Reclining in rumpled beds

Of unmade dreams that can't come true,

And when we ask what we should do,

Who? Who will answer?



'Neath the spreading mushroom tree,

The world revolves in apathy

As overhead, a row of specks

Roars on, drowned out by discotheques,

And if a secret button's pressed

Because one man has been outguessed,

Who will answer?



Is our hope in walnut shells

Worn 'round the neck with temple bells,

Or deep within some cloistered walls

Where hooded figures pray in halls?

Or crumbled books on dusty shelves,

Or in our stars, or in ourselves,

Who will answer?



If the soul is darkened

By a fear it cannot name,

If the mind is baffled

When the rules don't fit the game,

Who will answer? Who will answer? Who will answer?

Alleluiah! Alleluiah! Alleluiah!



From: "Roy T. O'Conner"