by Daniel Kelly – 2024

     G               C          G
I stood at the foot of a giant tree,
     D
Looked up to its crown,
       G            C
As it looked down at me.
     C
Two thousand years old,
     G             D
And a hundred feet tall,
     C         G           D  G
And I felt so small in its shadow.

I floated the Franklin in a tiny boat,
Tossed by the current,
And barely afloat,
Ancient stone rose,
Around every bend,
And I drank in the cool of its shadow,

     C      G       D      G
Stone and water, moss and tree,
     C         G      C       D
I’m part of them as they are of me,
     C                G
I’ll fight for their right,
     D         G
To live and let be,
     C               G       D        G
Though all the world seek to destroy them

I sat in the halls of democracy,
And I spoke up to power,
As it looked down on me,
In State and in Capital,
I spoke truth to them all,
And I refused to hide in their shadow,

I’ve stood at the front of the protest line,
For tree and for river,
And peace in our time,
And many a day,
I’ve been led to a cell,
But I always emerge from the shadow.

I sit at the foot of a giant tree,
Looked up to its crown,
As it looks down at me.
And though I am old,
I can still hear the call,
and the millions who march in my shadow.