River Still To Cross

It's not the thousand years of wanton waste

Nor the desert sun that's burning

Or a fire like no other

That's gonna stop this world a-turning

Not the ministers with wisdom

Or the Unions with their might

Oh they'll still be fighting

Over who was wrong or right

Nor the innocents amongst us

Would be robbed of life and blood

By the one who saw the tide

Come turning back upon the flood

There is a river still to cross

And the only thing to say is

It don't have to be that way

There is a river still to cross

And the bridges of tomorrow

Are the troubles of today

That are washed away

It's not the captains nor the teachers

Nor the prophets who command

That everbody's party to this sick and savage land

Where ignorance comes easy and the hardest thing to find

Is a man born of a woman who is every bit as kind

And when the first thing every newborn child does is to cry

May it all be damned my friend, but you surely can't deny

There is a river still to cross

And the only thing to say is

It don't have to be that way

There is a river still to cross

And the bridges of tomorrow

Are the troubles of today

So listen up you honest men

And let you speak your mind

If you cannot then neither can

The next men down the line

And you politicians of the day

Who swear that it's all right

Brace yourselves to face the fire

Of a land you can't deny

Well there'll be quaking and burning and undying yearning

Consuming, accusing and crippling unneeded and weeping and leeding

There is a river still to cross

And the only thing to say is

It don't have to be that way

There is a river still to cross

And the bridges of tomorrow

Are the troubles of today

There is a river still to cross

And the bridges of tomorrow

Are the troubles of today

That are washed away