The Carver © Brian Hooper, February 2009
I will never know your name, but I know you just the same,
You’re the one who did the carving in the church down by the square;
Many years have come and gone, but the work you did lives on;
You’d be pleased to know how many people come to see it there.
And I feel as if I’m standing by your side,
And I’m sharing in your craftsman’s pride;
In time we’re far apart, but there’s something in your heart
That I can feel.
And I wonder if your time was anything like mine,
When soldiers go to war for things they cannot understand.
Did you ever have to fight for what someone said was right?
Did they take away your tools and put a weapon in your hand?
And I feel as if .......
And if I can share with you this feeling you once knew,
Your pride in making something that could speak across the years,
Then maybe we can share some sympathy and care
With brothers in our own time, only parted by their fears,
And I feel as if ....
I will never know your name, but I know you just the same,
You’re the one who did the carving in the church down by the square;
Just a simple work of art, reaching out from hand to heart
You’d be pleased to know how many people come to see it there.
And I feel as if ....
This song resulted from a visit to a church in a Canary Island village, which features some impressive wood-carvings. They were carved centuries before tourism came to the Canaries, to be seen only by God and the locals.