The Monument - Community News for Gray, New Gloucester, Cumberland, N. Yarmouth, Raymond and Windham Maine

Editorial

Woody Guthrie wrote the song "Peace Call" in the early 1950s but it was never recorded until 2004. Eliza Gilkyson and her guitar player discovered the song in an old out-of-print Guthrie songbook from the Guthrie archives while on the Woody Guthrie Tribute Tour last summer.

Guthrie is known for lyrics that evoke honesty, humor, and wit while highlighting his beliefs in social, political, and spiritual justice.

Whether you interpret the song's lyrics an an anthem for peace in the world, for America to leave Iraq, or as a personal creed for human relationships, they are worth thinking about as we enjoy vacations and summer with Maine with loved ones.

PEACE CALL
By Woody Guthrie

Open your hearts to the paradise
To the peace of the heavenly angels
Takes away that woeful shadow dancing on your wall
Take to the skies of peace
Oh friends of peace of the one great spirit
Get ready for my bugle call of peace

Thick war clouds will throw their shadows, darkening the world around you
but in my life of peace your dark illusions fall
think and pray along the way, embrace the ones around you
get ready for my bugle call of peace

If these war storms fill your heart with a thousand kinds of worry
Keep to my road of peace, you'll never have to fear
Keep in the sun and look around in the face of peace and plenty
Get ready for my bugle call of peace

Peace peace peace
I can hear the bugle sounding
Growing round my land, my city and my town
Peace peace peace
I can hear the voices ringing, louder while my bugle calls for peace

I'll clear my house of the weeds of fear
And turn to the friends around me
With my smile of peace I'll greet you one and all
I'll work, I'll fight, I'll dance and sing of the peace of the youthful spirit
Get ready for my bugle call of peace

PenSpeak by Marty Riskin