Lyrics Up There Down There - Patti Smith

Up there
There's a ball of fire
Some call it the spirit
Some call it the sun
Its energies are not for hire
It serves man

It serves everyone
Down there where Jonah wails
In the healing water
The ready depths
Twisting like silver swans
No line of death, no boundaries

Up there
The eye is hollow
The eye is winking
The winds ablaze
Angels howling
His sphinx awakens
But what can she say?
If they're amazed

Down there
Days are numbers
We all know numbers
Nothing to fear
There will be trumpets
There will be silence
If in the end
It all here just here

Ah, the borders of heaven are
Zipped up tight tonight
The abstract streets
Let lights like some switched on Mondrian
Cats like us are obsolete

Hey man, don't breathe on my feet
Thieves, poets we're inside out
And everybody's a soldier
Angels howl at those abstract lights
And the borders of Heaven
Zipped up tight tonight

Up there
There's a ball of fire
Some call it the spirit
Some call it the sun
Its energies are not for hire
It serves man
It serves everyone

The air we breathe
The blame of wisdom
The earth we grind
The beckoning sea
No mystery
Not sentimental
Ah, the equation
It's all elemental

The world is restless
Heaven in flux
Angels appear
From the bright storm
Out of the shadows
Up there, down there
But what can we say?
Man's been forewarned

All communion is not holy
Even those that fall
Oh, they can prophet, understanding
It's all for man
It's for everyone
It's up there, down there
Everywhere, everywhere

Time for communion, time for communion
Eh, time for there
Up there, in there
Everywhere, everywhere
Everywhere, everywhere