[Intro] Impact does not see Intention does not see The hand thinks because it moves That is the danger [Verse 1] The hammer comes down It don’t ask what waits Nail or bone Cradle or gate Beam or glass Hinge or spine The hammer and the hand are blind The hammer knows weight The hammer knows fall It don’t know mercy It don’t know law It don’t know house It don’t know wooned It only knows the downward tune [Pre-Chorus] Function without witness Force without sight A clean little motion In the middle of night [Chorus] The hammer and the hand are blind The nail goes in The fault stays behind The blow comes down The mark gets signed The hammer and the hand are blind The hammer and the hand are blind The wall stands up But the room leans inside The work gets done But the truth takes time The hammer and the hand are blind [Verse 2] The hand believes Because it can grip Because it can lift Because it can slip Ink into paper Blade into line And call that contact A kind of mind But contact ain’t knowing Impact ain’t sight A blind man can strike What stands in the light The hand has reasons Stacked up high Every little reason With a workingman’s lie [Pre-Chorus] I had to It was clean It was deserved It had to mean It sounded right It felt like law But the hand still moved Before it saw [Chorus] The hammer and the hand are blind The nail goes in The fault stays behind The blow comes down The mark gets signed The hammer and the hand are blind The hammer and the hand are blind The cut looks straight But the grain won’t lie The work gets done But the truth takes time The hammer and the hand are blind [Bridge] Measure once Then measure again Ask the wood Where the lie came in Clamp the phrase Let the room go still Do not call hunger A holy will Bench for the burden Vise for the claim Square for the crooked And time for the name Pause for the breath Before the blow A hand in a hurry Don’t know what it knows [Breakdown] Slow Down Slow Down The nail don’t testify The hammer don’t repent The hand don’t get cleaner By saying what it meant Slow Down Slow Down What stands after Is the only sound What leans later Was already found [Verse 3] The old makers knew What the fast ones forget The mark ain’t true Just because it got set A cut ain’t holy Because it was sharp A song ain’t honest Because it hit hard A house can rise And still lean wrong A phrase can shine And still kill song A tool has no conscience A hand has no crown So let the work answer When the dust comes down [Pre-Chorus] Grain will speak Weight will tell Time keeps receipts In the timber of hell The room remembers The line you chose The page keeps blood Where the ink once flowed [Chorus] The hammer and the hand are blind The nail goes in The fault stays behind The blow comes down The mark gets signed The hammer and the hand are blind The hammer and the hand are blind The cut looks straight But the grain won’t lie The work gets done But the truth takes time The hammer and the hand are blind [Final Bridge] So place the tool Below the vow Let the hand be questioned Before it knows how Let the bench hold Let the vise bite Let the page resist Let the old woond write Let the dead look on Let the body say wait Let one honest friend Stand near the gate Then if the hand Still has to choose Let it cut clean With nothing to prove [Final Chorus] The hammer and the hand are blind The nail goes in The fault stays behind The blow comes down The mark gets signed The hammer and the hand are blind The hammer and the hand are blind But the work can teach Where not to strike The room can tell What the hand denied The hammer and the hand are blind [Outro] Impact does not see Intention does not see The hand thinks because it moves That is the danger The hammer is blind The hand is blind So slow the blow And test the line The hammer is blind The hand is blind But the work remembers Every time
