Papa Poet

My first date with my wife was to a Peter, Paul, and Mary concert.  I had become a fan at 10.  This song didn’t make the hit parade when it was released on “Album 1700″ in 1967.  Though it conflicted me then, and haunts me still.

THE GREAT MANDALA (The Wheel of Life)
Peter Yarrow- Pepamar Music Corp.- ASCAP

So I told him that he’d better shut his mouth
And do his job like a man.
And he answered “Listen, Father,
I will never kill another.”
He thinks he’s better
than his brother that died
What the hell does he think he’s doing
To his father who brought him up right?

Chorus:
Take your place on The Great Mandala
As it moves through your brief moment of time.
Win or lose now you must choose now
And if you lose you’re only losing your life.

Tell the jailer not to bother
With his meal of bread and water today.
He is fasting ’til the killing’s over
He’s a martyr, he thinks he’s a prophet.
But he’s a coward, he’s just playing a game
He can’t do it, he can’t change it
It’s been going on for ten thousand years

(Chorus)

Tell the people they are safe now
Hunger stopped him, he lies still in his cell.
Death has gagged his accusations

We are free now, we can kill now,
We can hate now, now we can end the world
We’re not guilty, he was crazy
And it’s been going on for ten thousand years!

Take your place on The Great Mandala
As it moves through your brief moment of time.
Win or lose now you must choose now
And if you lose you’ve only wasted your life.