Big Sky

While you lie sleeping
forty miles from Montana's border
I breathe the dusty air
and think how far we've come
western lands restore a sense of order
this strange hunger drives

Deep within our spirit Big Sky calls

Mankind walked the earth,
and no sooner tamed the sea,
and looked up to the heavens long ago

Hopes and fears combined,
now we search the plains and desert
for our place under the Sun

The sunset beckons
drawn like moths to flame we chase the Sun
through the mountain pass
The canyon forms a tunnel
as the last light slips below the horizon
as the night advances

Headlong through the canyon as Big Sky calls

In pioneering days
here legends tamed the land
and moved across the new frontier

If they remained today
surely they'd recall the day
as rulers over all they surveyed

And there at the end of the canyon,
the mountains part, receding
the heavens open up, horizon to horizon
A part of everyone is connected here
and here I realize the moment of belonging

In quarries east of Eden once we washed our bodies clean,
now those memories fade;
now the warm earth cools,
the colors of the night replace the day
and in one moment

Stars fill the sky, one for each man and woman everywhere

All our hopes and fears combine;
we have no choice but to discover
the realization that we all live forever in each other

As the night goes on, there on the open plain
we cling together, counting the stars at Big Sky

©1999 Denison, Geihe, James, Park, Pfeifer