You Are Found (Remastered)

[opening work chant, bright percussion, many voices at different distances] One stone, two stones Set them true Salt breeze, sun wind Carry us through One hand, two hands Lift each beam Repair the walls And keep the dream [verse 1, female lead, warm but grounded] Sand on the shield-rim Ash in the grain We swept the black from the thresholds And opened our doors again Their towers came shouting Their banners came down We met them together And took back the ground Now the gulls cry over the harbor Now the nets go out at dawn Now the bread smells sweet in the ovens And the broken stones are drawn [pre-chorus, martial work rhythm, call and response] Lift the torch (Call the names) Not for sorrow (Not for shame) Every life the dark would claim Is a lamp we keep in flame Step by step Wall by wall We lift you up If you should fall [chorus, full choir enters, sunlit and rousing] Akkadin, rise again Akkadin, rise again Sisters of the sun Bring the morning down Akkadin, rise again Akkadin, rise again When all is dark You are found You are found [verse 2, male and female voices trading lines] Mothers at the gatepost Daughters in the sand Names in the white stone Blades in their hands Scars like sacred verses Written on the skin We do not hide the wound We build the light within There are children in the market There are songs on every street There are hammers on the rooftops Keeping time beside the sea [pre-chorus, stronger, more communal] Lift the torch (Call the names) Old grief walks But never reigns Every life the dark would claim Is a lamp we keep in flame Step by step Wall by wall When one falls— We lift them all [chorus, bigger] Akkadin, rise again Akkadin, rise again Sisters of the sun Bring the morning down Akkadin, rise again Akkadin, rise again When all is dark You are found You are found [post-chorus, workers’ chant, cheerful and rhythmic] Lift it up Lift it higher Stone and salt Blood and fire Lift it up Lift it higher Love became law And law became fire [verse 3, more mythic, widening into history] Once we were gathered From ruin and rain Once there was nothing But one road through pain One woman called us One sword stood before One hand reached for another And the first wall rose from war So we mend what was shattered So we count what was lost So we plant in the ashes Whatever the cost For no final ruin Can bury the dawn While one hand reaches And another holds on [bridge, quieter; grief acknowledged, not denied] When the gates were black And the storm was near We held each other And we held our fear No one stood forgotten No one stood alone We carved every name Into salt, sun, and stone And the dead are not gone Where the living remain They are bread in the oven They are bells in the rain They are hands on our shoulders When the burden is tall They are voices beneath us Saying rise when you fall [breakdown, call and response, almost playful work-song at first] When one falls? (Lift her) When night calls? (Lift her) When hope bends? (Lift her) When stone rends? (Lift her) When grief stays? (Lift her) Through long days? (Lift her) Who are we? (Akkadin) What do we do? (Rise again) [final chorus, ecstatic but earned] Akkadin, rise again Akkadin, rise again Sisters of the sun Bring the morning down Akkadin, rise again Akkadin, rise again When all is dark You are found You are found Akkadin, rise again Akkadin, rise again From the salt and stone We stand proud Akkadin, rise again Akkadin, rise again Hear the empire sing aloud [final post-chorus, huge choir] Lift it up Lift it higher Stone and salt Blood and fire Lift it up Lift it higher Love became law And law became fire [closing, voices thin back into workers, then one female voice] One stone, two stones Set them true Salt breeze, sun wind Carry us through One hand, two hands Lift each beam Repair the walls And keep the dream Sand on the shield-rim Sun in the air Akkadin remembers We were always there [lone female voice humming into warm outro]