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