[Verse 1 - Spoken] I rode east when I was younger with more shine upon my boots than good sense beneath my hat Had books packed in my saddlebag and a hunger in my chest to sit where important men sat I climbed their marble stairways learned the weight of polished words learned to speak without saying much And when those big men shook my hand and called me by my name I started standing taller at their touch Thought I had found the high country where the wise and worthy lived where a man might finally arrive But ivory is slick and cold and every man who climbs it spends his strength just trying not to slide [Refrain - Barely Sung] The Lord and todays trouble are enough for any man Enough sky above his shoulders enough earth beneath his hands Let tomorrow keep its distance let the proud men make their plans The Lord and todays trouble are enough for any man [Verse 2 - Spoken] I listened close behind the doors where the big decisions happened and the voices all grew low Found the men who talked the largest had the smallest rooms inside them where they feared for folks to go They still measured still compared still scrambled for another chair Still covered what was crooked still hid what did not fit then smiled like nothing troubled them in there They wore confidence like Sunday clothes buttoned tight across the chest while hunger gnawed beneath the ivory show Always needing one more title one more room to know their name one more lesser man to stand a little low And I reckon that is when I learned a tower can make a shadow big enough to hide a hollow soul [Refrain - Barely Sung] The Lord and todays trouble are enough for any man Enough sky above his shoulders enough earth beneath his hands Let tomorrow keep its distance let the proud men make their plans The Lord and todays trouble are enough for any man [Verse 3 - Spoken] So I came back where the wind talks plain and the red dirt tells the truth where a blister has no reason to pretend I traded rooms of polished talk for a gate that needed hanging and a fence line with no patience for a friend There is something in a days work that will settle down a man when his hands have done exactly what they could A post set straight a colt turned loose a supper earned beneath a sinking sun No applause no name in print just the peace of knowing something honest got done And I quit asking what they thought of me because I knew what they were thinking They were counting they were climbing they were scared of disappearing All that marble all that polish all that smiling for the tower was a man begging other men to tell him he had power [Bridge - Spoken] But a man dont need to show what he has finally learned to be An oak dont brag about its roots a river dont explain the sea The cattle never praise the grass the wheat dont cheer the rain The good things do what they were made for then let the Lord give them their name [Verse 4 - Spoken] So I keep my treasure farther off than moth or rust can reach Where no thief would waste his midnight trying to find a way to breach I have seen what men will break for and what they will break to keep But heaven holds a kind of wealth that lets a tired cowboy sleep
