The Living and the Breathing Wind

©1979 Andrew Calhoun, recorded on Water Street and Staring at the Sun

I wrote this September 12, 1979, a month and a half before my son Louis was born. Wrote two other songs the same day - "The Bull" and "Didn't You Jane," my greatest day as a songwriter.

Kevin Roth recorded this on a Folkways CD around 1981. It was on my first LP, Water Street, 1983.

Think of all the seasons and the feelings and the moods
Think of all the people that our love affair includes
We are bound together, like the morning and the evening
We are bound together, with the living and the breathing wind

Some things happen that shouldn't, my child
Like the snapping turtle snapping, while the turtle-killer smiled
And the sun went pale, and the day was drained of meaning
We are bound together with the living and the breathing wind

Listen to the sound of the cat-bird's call
He sings just like a cat, but the cat won't sing at all
When you leave me, I will take my sorrow from your leaving
We are bound together with the living and the breathing wind

I am not the captain, nor the bosun, nor the crewman
In this ship's kind heart, I am a number, and a human
When my ship goes down, I leave my love on land to grieve me
We are bound together with the living and the breathing wind

I'm not in any trouble, so I'm not in any hurry
I have no time to lose, so I have no time to worry
For I have no choice, though I gamble odd or even
They are bound together with the living and the breathing wind

One man had no cards, to spread upon the table
One man turned his back, and he left the Tower of Babel
He spoke not a word, but his eyes were straight and even
He was bound together with the living and the breathing wind

Think of all the seasons, and the feelings, and the moods
Think of all the people that our love affair includes
We are bound together, like the morning and the evening
We are bound together, with the living and the breathing wind