SAVING GRACE (A SONG FOR TALIS)

Tune "Halfway There" by Mike Whitaker

You asked me why I never write about the way I feel,
Or what it's like inside me, or anything that's real.
I could not find the answer, and I tried to tell you so,
And I thought about it all last night, and the truth is I don't know.
I'm a thing of shreds and patches with a darkness at its core,
And I know that someone made me but I've never known what for--
But when you take me by the hands and look up in my face
Then I think I see reflected there / / a kind of saving grace.

I've never understood myself, it's shameful but it's true.
I know I've changed a good deal but I don't know into who.
The one I love could tell you more, she knows me inside out,
For it's she I always turn to whenever I'm in doubt.
I had been alone for so long, and I thought I'd always be,
And there was nothing to commend me to a lady such as she.
But she smiled at me and kissed me, and it all fell into place,
And I never could account for it / / except by saving grace.

That's all that I can tell you: I don't know what else to say.
It scares me to examine things in case they go away.
Some people seem to like me but I still can't fathom why,
And I wish I could have done this without using so much "I"...
There's a darkness at the heart of me my eyes cannot see through,
But though it isn't clear to me, perhaps it's clear to you.
Perhaps I'm not the only one, but just a textbook case,
And we all need someone close to us / / to find our saving grace.