A Call To Heal
The Baghdad Rain Project
1. A New Day
2. Prelude to Rain
3. Baghdad Rain
4. 158,000 Palms
5. I Think I’m Dying
6. Love Is the Only Word
7. The War In My Head
8. Iron Cage
9. Love Is All We Have
10. When I Leave This Place
11. Mother
12. Baghdad Rain (Reprise)
13. Prayer for Calm
When there’s light in the Eastern sky
Pray to the maker of human life
Pray for peace in the world
And a new day
When there’s pain deep in your heart
Pray to Him for the healing to start
Pray for peace in the world
And a new day…pray for a new day
When your faith is running out
Pray that He will erase all doubt
Pray for peace in the world
And a new day…pray for a new day
When the time has finally come
Pray that we can live as one
Pray for peace in the world
And a new day…pray for a new day…pray…pray
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Oud instrumental
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In this City death lives in
The shadow of each sin
If you take the life of another
Do you think the soul can recover
If a flower grows in a minefield
In a shower of hot lead and hate
Would you walk out to feel how the petals feel
Would you walk in the rain, the Baghdad Rain, the burning rain
I will never understand
Why we pour blood to wet the land
If you take the life of another
Do you think the soul can recover
If a flower grows in these city streets
In a shower of heartache and pain
Would you walk out to feel how the petals feel
Would you walk in the rain, the Baghdad Rain, the burning rain
Will the flower drink the rain
Or wither beneath the strain
In the hours, in the days
While we wait and we pray
If a fire burns in an oil field
If this car could drive us away
If we meet in the open highway
Will we walk in the rain, the Baghdad Rain, the burning rain
In the holy words of our Father
If you take the life of another
You have taken the soul of your brother
And the soul may never recover
And the soul may never recover
And the soul…may never recover
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When our bombs fell from the sky
Hundreds of palms burned in the night
Other life was taken unseen
Can’t take it back so this is my dream
One hundred fifty-eight thousand
A gift of palms
Made to the Iraqi people
With open arms
One tree for every soldier
Returning home
Until the soldiers are gone
Dig in the earth wherever you stand
Lower the palm in the palm of your hand
In time, when the trees are all grown
Fresh ripe dates will fall on your home
One hundred fifty-eight thousand
A gift of palms
Made to the Iraqi people
With open arms
One tree for every soldier
Returning home
Until the soldiers are gone
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I Think I’m Dying
(James English)
I think I’m dying
I think I’m dying
Feels like I’m hiding from the truth we both know is there
Living our lives like we don’t even care about dying
I think I’m dying
I think I’m dying
Feels like I’m trying not to remember all of the times
When we got lost in the moments of life and dying…I’m dying
Will you visit me at my grave
I think I’m dying
I think I’m dying
Feels like you flying off to heaven and there’s no one around
I’m stuck watching from the ground dying…I’m dying
I think I’m dying
I think I’m dying
I’m dying
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Love Is the Only Word
(James English)
We try to describe
The differences of men
But these words we seek
Are only an illusion
This is the word of God
This is the word of Allah
This is the word to all
Love is the only word
We try to decide
Which words we will defend
But He does not speak
Through the language of man
This is the word of God
This is the word of Allah
This is the word to all
Love is the only word
We try to divide His people and His land
But these senseless deeds
Reveal we don’t understand
This is the word of God
This is the word of Allah
This is the word to all
Love is the only word
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The War In My Head
(James English)
I die here every day
My mind feels all blown away
A soul nobody can save
A ghost in search of his grave
It comes in the night It kills like a gun
And swallows your life
The war in my head
The dead die over again
In a war you never can win
Both sides fight to the end
I wait for it to begin
It comes in the night It kills like a gun
And swallows your life
The war in my head
At dawn I bury the dead
Who fall inside of my head
Then rise up from this bed
To run from what lies ahead
It comes in the night It kills like a gun
And swallows your life
The war in my head
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I was an angry soul
Always ready to fight
I’d take the world apart
Just to make it right
But the pieces just won’t fit
Back together again
And maybe I’m losing hope
Of finding a peace within
You said that’s not the way
That I needed to change
No bird will ever fly
From this iron cage
A walk at the Western Wall
Where so many have prayed
Made me think of walls
That we build today
Stones are not sacred
Land is not holy If the walls we make
Keep us from peace
No bird will ever fly
From this iron cage
Children will only die
From our undying rage
You said that’s not the way
That I needed to change
No bird will ever fly
From this iron cage
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Love I s All We Have
(Nathan Swami, Nitin Tripathi, James English, Jeffrey Romano)
Love Is All
All we have
So if you find love
Or it finds you
Open your heart to love
Feel alive…calm abiding
All we take from this life is what we give away
So if we make love our gift of grace
We will be leaving the world
With the meaning of everything
Love Is All
All we have
Love Is All
All we are
So if you lose love
You lose a part
The one that makes you
Feel alive…calm abiding
All we take from this life is what we give away
So if we make love our gift of grace
We will be leaving the world
With the meaning of everything
Love Is All
All we have
Love Is All
All we are
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When I Leave This Place
(James English)
Each day I have some time
After we eat
To put a prayer mat down
At soldiers’ feet And when
I leave this place
I’ll not be gone
The path that leads away
Comes back around
Our lives are intertwined
Like these barbs of wire
Wrapped for eternity
‘Round this cell of mine
I’m going on a journey
To the other side
The secret is in knowing
The truth they cannot hide
Each day I see the mosque
Outside our zone
The people congregate
A car explodes
And when I leave this place
I’ll not be gone
The path that leads away
Comes back around
Our lives are intertwined
Live these twisted blades
Stuck for eternity
In this broken cage
I’m going on a journey
To the other side
The secret is in knowing
The truth they cannot hide
We’re going on a journey
To the other side
The secret is in knowing
The truth we cannot hide
I’m going on a journey
To the other side
I’m going on a journey…
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Brush the dirt from my face
Lift me up
Seen better days
Than the day I left your world
Fallen from grace
Like an angry child
Mother, could you replace
All we lost forever
All we lost forever
Mother Oh, Mother
Mother…
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Baghdad Rain (Reprise)
(Ann Marie Calhoun and James English)
Strings arranged by Ann Marie Calhoun
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Prayer for Calm
(James English)
At dawn when the troops are gone
The streets are clear
If you close your eyes and breathe
The sound you hear is the sound of calm
These guns and roadside bombs
Must now be calm…Hear our prayer for calm
These voices that call to fight
Must now be calm…Hear our prayer for calm
These storms that pounds us all
Must now be calm…Hear our prayer for calm
These people whose lives are torn
Must now be calm…Hear our prayer for calm
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