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  1. This Kite

From the recording This Kite

On a windswept, early spring day, Jan saw an old man with a kite in an empty field. We both found it a compelling image but one neither of us knew quite how to approach. During one of our conversations about it, I recalled a blustery spring day when a couple dads and moms and a herd of kids constructed a monstrous kite from fiberglass fence posts, baler twine and round bale covers. Jan quickly put these images together and (except for an extended discussion about the next to last line in the third stanza) it was done. - Paul Conrad

Lyrics

©2008 Jan Hammond & Paul Conrad

When I was just a young boy 

With my friend and both our dads, 

We built a giant fence posts cross 

With baler twine, scads and scads 

A burlap diamond shrouded the frame 

It must have been eight feet tall 

But that mighty northwest wind

Was able to lift us all 

Maybe this kite will take us higher, 

Maybe this kite will clear that tree, 

Maybe this kite will pull us far away 

To where we’re meant to be

Maybe this kite, maybe this kite,

Maybe this kite, maybe this kite,

Maybe this kite

Fast forward thirty-odd years 

With my own kids in the yard 

A store-bought, pre-fab plastic kite 

Did’t recall it bein’ so hard 

With great expectations they ran, 

Ran laughing ‘n ran some more 

But the gentle springtime breeze 

Couldn’t make their little kite soar

Maybe this kite will take them higher, 

Maybe this kite will help them see, 

Maybe this kite will lift them far away 

To where they’re meant to be 

Maybe this kite, maybe this kite,

Maybe this kite, maybe this kite,

Maybe this kite

Decades have passed since that day 

I’m an old man in the field 

Kite’s on the ground, the string’s in hand 

I run, but my legs cry yield 

Someone watching might think me a fool 

But I celebrate the scars 

As the magnitude of God’s breath 

Lifts my kite among the stars 

Maybe this kite will take me higher, 

Maybe this kite will set me free, 

Maybe this kite will take me far away 

To where I’m meant to be 

Maybe this kite, maybe this kite,

Maybe this kite, maybe this kite,

Maybe this kite