Long’s Hope
Words and Music by Dave Nealon © 2014
From the setting of Long's Chapel, local musician, Dave Nealon
captures the ambitious spirit of the Zenda community
and how it encouraged the early hopes of Ms. Lucy Simms
Words and Music by Dave Nealon © 2014
From the setting of Long's Chapel, local musician, Dave Nealon
captures the ambitious spirit of the Zenda community
and how it encouraged the early hopes of Ms. Lucy Simms
The forest edge and half in shadow
A roadside respite on winding hill
Limestone and moss and scattered violets
In patterns stitching a graveside quilt
A one-room school long years abandoned
In slanting stanchions of evening light
Acre of rest and restoration
Unchiseled headstones, the cusp of night
Lend me your vision, light from your eyes
Brave hope of winning, eyes on the prize
A child slave till Lee’s surrender
Rendered a scholar at Hampton Roads
Under the Oak Emancipation
Till education calls you back home
Against long odds at Long’s Hope chapel
The former chattels now own the land
You born in bonds now serving freely
Primers and prospects in children’s hands
Lend me your vision, light from your eyes
Brave hope of winning, eyes on the prize
Bold from the ocean home to the mountain
Climbing above abuse and disgrace
They say for courage there’s no accounting
But you reckon promise in every face
Gray clapboard walls, white painted lumber
Yet few remember the history here
The silent bell no more recalling
The tolling memory, sweet-bitter years
For you a birth, new-laid foundation
Risk and potential, and half in light
For me repose, a contemplation
And half in shadow, the cusp of night
Lend me your vision, light from your eyes
Brave hope of winning, eyes on the prize
Lend me your vision, light from your eyes
Brave hope of winning, eyes on the prize,
Eyes on the prize, eyes on the prize
A roadside respite on winding hill
Limestone and moss and scattered violets
In patterns stitching a graveside quilt
A one-room school long years abandoned
In slanting stanchions of evening light
Acre of rest and restoration
Unchiseled headstones, the cusp of night
Lend me your vision, light from your eyes
Brave hope of winning, eyes on the prize
A child slave till Lee’s surrender
Rendered a scholar at Hampton Roads
Under the Oak Emancipation
Till education calls you back home
Against long odds at Long’s Hope chapel
The former chattels now own the land
You born in bonds now serving freely
Primers and prospects in children’s hands
Lend me your vision, light from your eyes
Brave hope of winning, eyes on the prize
Bold from the ocean home to the mountain
Climbing above abuse and disgrace
They say for courage there’s no accounting
But you reckon promise in every face
Gray clapboard walls, white painted lumber
Yet few remember the history here
The silent bell no more recalling
The tolling memory, sweet-bitter years
For you a birth, new-laid foundation
Risk and potential, and half in light
For me repose, a contemplation
And half in shadow, the cusp of night
Lend me your vision, light from your eyes
Brave hope of winning, eyes on the prize
Lend me your vision, light from your eyes
Brave hope of winning, eyes on the prize,
Eyes on the prize, eyes on the prize
