White Isle Memories - Ridney

On the first day on January Eighteen ninety-two They opened ellis Island And they let the people through And the first to cross the treshold Of that Isle of hope and tears Was Annie Moore from Ireland Who was only fifteen years Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears Isle of Freedom, Isle of Fears But it's not the Isle you left behind That Isle of Hunger, Isle of Pain Isle you'll never see again But the Isle of home is always on your mind In a little bag she carried All her past and history And her dreams for the future In the Land of Liberty And courage is the passport When your old world disappears But there's no future in the past When you're fifteen years Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears Isle of Freedom, Isle of Fears But it's not the Isle you left behind That Isle of Hunger, Isle of Pain Isle you'll never see again But the Isle of home is always on your mind When they closed down Ellis Island In Nineteen Fourty-Three Seventeen million people Had come there for Sanctuary And in springtime when I came here And I stepped onto it's piers I thought of how it must have been When you're fifteen years Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears Isle of Freedom, Isle of Fears But it's not the Isle you left behind That Isle of Hunger, Isle of Pain Isle you'll never see again But the Isle of home is always on your mind Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears Isle of Freedom, Isle of Fears But it's not the Isle you left behind That Isle of Hunger, Isle of Pain Isle you'll never see again But the Isle of home is always on your mind

Blinding shining star You won't see so far Know what can't be shown Feel what can't be known You were an isle unto thyself You had a heart you hadn't felt Why would it hurt me Or was it real It was the night we had to part We were afraid to miss the start What did it matter Why would it matter And could we heal Blinding shining star You won't see so far Know what can't be shown Feel what can't be known I was a victim of magic Apollo catching my breath as I bled on the ground Somebody called me to follow I followed thinking aloud without hearing the sound Then all the planets fell to dust Lonely departing after us Gone not forgotten Long but forgotten old lore In every element of life Love camouflaging under strife or other matters Minds over matters let there be more Maybe you'll exit tomorrow The sorrow sweeping you off as your island replies Sudden invincible flowing A river clearer than all thou might view with thine eyes Why did fire-erupted lands arrive? Why did murderous animals survive? Why did we deserve to be revived? Why was any and everything alive?