Hymn for a Festival of Sandcastles

[bnewman]

Inspired by witnessing the creation and destruction of a traditional Tibetan sand painting, the Festival of Sandcastles is a fictional holiday that combines sand-castle building with the contemplation of time, change, and the impermanence of all things.  We build our castles, then watch thoughtfully as the tide washes them away.

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

listen to this song

/: G - D Em /1-3. - C - D :/4. - C D G /

 

When I was a child we would build on the seashore,

Sandcastles rising, defying the sea,

Spires and pinnacles, ramparts and towers,

The dreams of our hearts that our hands made to be.

 

But of these castles, which one is most worthy,

A memory always to treasure inside?

A palace most intricate, built for its beauty,

Or a fortress that dares the unstoppable tide?

 

Where will our sandcastles stand tomorrow,

After the tide has risen again?

Sandcastles vanish and fade into sorrow;

So perish all of the doings of men.

 

Build me no fortress the tide cannot conquer,

For that is a castle that never can be.

But build me a palace of beauty and honor,

That graciously yields to the onrushing sea.

 

I know it's important to build for the future,

And to hope that our works will survive through the years,

But that isn't all I aspire build for,

For all that we do will someday disappear.

 

I'd rather a labor of love that does honor

To the hands of its builders, as if to say

That one day of beauty is more to be treaured

Than one day of strength that must still fade away.

 

Where will our sandcastles...

 

Build me no fortress the tide cannot conquer...