In the sluggish sleep of slaves
From your cradles to your graves
You live unaware of your great power and where it’s gotten from
But the minute you awake
This whole Planet Earth will shake
To your rhythmic cosmic drum
Everything in all Creation
Has its own distinct vibration
That keeps moving to a universal measure we call time
As these movements then repeat
It’s their time to which they beat
For time is the force sublime
Any life that ever lived
Came in time wrapped as a gift
To be either used up well or else allowed to go to waste
None knows how long time will last
But we all know once it’s passed
Time can never be replaced
Any present time provides
Time itself also divides
Into regulated segments
Seconds, minutes, hours, days
Into weeks, months, seasons years
to which every age appears
Each in its decided space
So, as nature runs its course
Time has been its moving force
And although some time may seem to lag as other time has leapt
As it’s moved along its way
No time has been made to stay
Just its rhythm has been kept
Now a rhythm seems to last
Like a shadow time has cast
Like the visible remains of some invisible event
The more any rhythm swings
The more energy it brings
The more power it represents
Of course people who can call
Upon rhythm best of all
Are you relatives of Africa where human life began
No one else of any race
Has the necessary grace
To keep time the way you can
Time that you translate to dance
Into music to entrance
And engage the human spirit in activity so fine
That you shouldn’t find it odd
If it’s called the Grace of God
For indeed it is divine
To take time and make it swing
Is so valuable a thing
It cannot be bought nor sold for any specified amount
Call it destiny or fate
It’s your gift at any rate
Which you suffer to discount
You still hear the old echo
Of a time you won’t let go
When black bodies, minds and souls were being held by whips and chains
But the chains have gone to rust
And the whips have turned to dust
Just their memory remains
Like a nightmare you might dream
With a foul, recurring theme
That will vanish into nothing once you awaken from your sleep
Then as you enjoy your gift
Every heart will get a lift
From the moving time you keep
You whom God has graced to swing
Must “lift every voice and sing”
Sending images to satellites from which they will rebound
To paint entertaining scenes
Upon television screens
For all people, world around
With the Grace of God you’ve got
You need never fire a shot
To create a mighty force too powerful to be withstood
It’s your legacy at birth
To be used for all it’s worth
And provide for your own good
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