I looked out across  The river today  I saw a city in the fog and an old church tower  Where the seagulls play  I saw the sad shire horses walking home  In the sodium light  I saw two priests on the ferry  October geese on a cold winter's night    And all this time, the river flowed  Endlessly to the sea    Two priests came round our house tonight  One young, one old, to offer prayers for the dying  To serve the final rite  One to learn, one to teach  Which way the cold wind blows  Fussing and flapping in priestly black  Like a murder of crows    And all this time, the river flowed  Endlessly to the sea  If I had my way I'd take a boat from the river  And I'd bury the old man,  I'd bury him at sea    Blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the earth  Better to be poor than a fat man in the eye of a needle  And as these words were spoken I swore I hear  The old man laughing  'What good is a used up world and how could it be  Worth having'    And all this time the river flowed  Endlessly like a silent tear  And all this time the river flowed  Father, if Jesus exists,  Then how come he never lived here    The teachers told us, the Romans built this place  They built a wall and a temple, an edge of the empire  Garrison town,  They lived and they died, they prayed to their gods  But the stone gods did not make a sound  And their empire crumbled, 'til all that was left  Were the stones the workmen found    And all this time the river flowed  In the falling light of a northern sun  If I had my way I'd take a boat from the river  Men go crazy in congregations  But they only get better  One by one  One by one...