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Constantine's Dream
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Patti Smith
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I dreamed a dream
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of st Francis who kneeled and prayed
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for the birds and the beasts and all human kind
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all through the night I felt drawn in by him
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and I heard him call like a distant hymn
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I retreated from the silence of my room
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stepping down the ancient stones
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washed with dawn
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and entered the basilica that bore his name
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seeing his effigy I bowed my head
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and my racing heart, I gave to him
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I kneeled and prayed
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and sleep that I could not find in the night
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I found through him
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I saw before me the world of his world
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the bright fields
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the birds in abundance
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all of nature
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of which he sang
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singing of him
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all the beauty that surrounded him as he walked
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his nature that was nature itself
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and I heard him
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I heard him speak
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and the birds sang sweetly
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and the wolves licked his feet
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but I could not give myself to him
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I felt another call from the basilica itself
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the call of art, the call of man,
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and the beauty of the material drew me away
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and I awoke
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and beheld upon the wall, the dream of Constantine
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the handiwork of piero della francesca
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who had stood where I stood
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and with his brush stroke the legend of the true cross
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and he envisioned Constantine advancing to greet the enemy
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and as he was passing the river
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an unaccustomed fear gripped his bowels
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an anticipation so overwhelming that it manifested in waves
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all through the night
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the dream drew toward him as an advancing crusade
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he slept in his tent on the battlefield
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while his men stood guard
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and an angel awoke him
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Constantine within his dream awoke
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and his men saw a light pass over the face of the king
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the troubled king
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and the angel came and showed to him the sign of the true cross
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in heaven
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and upon it was written "in this sign shall thou conquer"
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in the distance
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the tents of his army were lit by moonlight
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but another kind of radiance lit the face of Constantine
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and in the morning light the artist seeing his work was done
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saw it was good
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in this sign shall thou conquer
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he let his brush drop and passed into a sleep of his own
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and he dreamed of Constantine carrying him into battle in his right hand
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an immaculate undefiled and simple white cross
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Piero della Francesca, as his brush stroked the wall
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filled with the torpor and fell into a dream of his own
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from the geometry of his heart, he mapped it out
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he saw the king rise, fitted with armor set upon a white horse
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an immaculate cross in his right hand
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he advanced toward the enemy
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and the symmetry
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the perfection of his mathematics
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caused the scattering of the enemy"”agitated, broken
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they fled
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and Piero dela Francesca, waking, cried out
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all is art
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all is future
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oh lord let me die on the back of adventure
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with a brush and an eye full of light
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as he advanced in age, the light was shorn from him
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his eyes, blinded,
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he layed upon his bed
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on an october morning, 1492
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whispering
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oh lord
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let me die on the back of adventure, oh lord
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let me die on the back of adventure, oh
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and a world away, the world away
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on three great ships, adventure itself,
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as if to answer
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pulling into the new world
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and as far as his eyes could see
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no longer blind
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all of nature
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unspoiled beautiful beautiful
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such a manner it would have lifted the heart of st Francis
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into the realm of universal love
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Columbus set foot on the new world
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he witnessed beauty unspoiled
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all of the delights given by god
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as if in Eden itself
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as if Eden had opened up her heart to him
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and opened her dress
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and all of her fruit, gave to him
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and Columbus so overwhelmed
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fell into a sleep of his own
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all the world in his sleep
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all of the beauty
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all of the beauty entwined with the future
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the 21st century
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advancing like the angel
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advancing like the angel
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that had come to Constantine
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Constantine and history
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oh this is your cross to bear
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oh lord
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oh lord let me deliver
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hallowed adventure to all mankind
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in the future
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oh art, cried the painter
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oh art, oh art, cried the angel
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art the great material gift of man
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art that hath denied the hungered pleas of st Francis
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oh thou artist
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all shall crumble in the dust
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oh thou navigator
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the terrible end of man
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this is your gift to mankind
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this is your cross to bear
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then Columbus saw all of nature aflame
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the apocalyptic night
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and the dream of the troubled king
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dissolved
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into light
Patti Smith - Looking For You (Was I) (O...
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