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Light Over Your Shoulder (Song #286)

by Mark Shepard

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Grant
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about

I've been savoring this song since I recorded it back in April of 2022... well since 1997 actually. I tried a number of different arrangements but this simple, bare bones yet full one won out...

It's a quiet simple song. No chorus. No bridge. Just a yearning to know where we came from, what we're doing here and where we're supposed to go... or do... next.

It's a song about the undefinable, unexplainable, undeniable Spirit that breathes through us all.

I hope you give it a couple of listens to let it sink in.

Thanks,

- Mark

lyrics

Light Over Your Shoulder | Song # 286 | 8/24/1997

There’s a Light over your shoulder
It’s a dream. It’s a song. It’s a road
It’s a story that’s been aching
For a quiet moment to be told
You can say that it is power
But it’s power of a very different sort
You can say that it is justice
But it’s not the kind you’ll find in any court

You can that it is peace
But I guarantee it will disturb your sleep
The only way that you can have it
Is by gladly giving it away
It is plenty for the poor.
It is light for those who stumble in the dark
It is wholeness for the cripple.
It is healing for the wounded heart

It’s the promise of a quiet day
In the house where you’re always welcome to stay
It’s the Labrador retriever
Who always seems to be in the way
It’s an enemy who becomes a teacher
It’s a teacher who dares to be a friend
It’s the lovers who cling to nothing
Because they have nothing to defend

It’s the ruthlessness of compassion
And the cunning of an open heart
It’s the active patience of a tree root.
It’s the sweetness of a conscious fool
It’s thunderclouds on the horizon
It’s the sound of seabirds out of sight of land
It’s the antidote to every poison.
It’s the punctuation of a marching band.

It’s the promise made to Jeremiah
That he was chosen in the womb
It’s the dawn on Easter morning at a certain empty tomb
I don’t know what it is.
There is so much I do not know
And I don’t know where it takes me
But I do know that I have to go…

Instrumental:

There’s a Light over your shoulder
It’s a dream. It’s a song. It’s a road
It’s a story that’s been aching
For this quiet moment to be told.

credits

released June 30, 2022

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about

Mark Shepard image

Mark Shepard Albany, New York

Welcome to my “Life In Song” project.

Since 1976, I’ve been obsessively and compulsively writing songs. Some of them are inspired by my own life, my attempts to understand love, life, spirituality, peace and justice.

While I recently have started to get a little recognition, you’ve probably never heard my songs ANYWHERE.

But now you can hear them... here... Download. Share. Thanks! ... more

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