Questions and Answers

Listen! Can you hear it?
It’s ‘the clapping of one hand’.
Well that’s what passes for profundity these days I understand.

And if a tree falls in a forest
And there’s no one there to hear,
Does the forest still resound with sound?
If there’s no one there – who cares?

The theatre! Now there’s a cause worth championing,
Although the last time I was there
It was two men – ‘Waiting for Godot’?

I worry for the world, I do.
The questions people ask
Seem not inclined to answers
As though answers were a task

Their not inclined to tackle
As though questions were an end
In themselves – it drives me round the bend.

I like questions you can answer
I like answers you can trust
That put the meat on life’s lean bones
Say ‘now you know, you must!’

That move you into action,
Commit you to a course.
Say ‘This is the way, walk in it’.
And you do with all your force.

Did I tell you I’m a Christian?
Well I am, and what is more
You can keep your empty questions
‘cause my answers make me sure

That if a tree fell in a forest
And a bloke with just one hand
Is walking there and hears it
And starts clapping He can stand

And wait all day for Godot
And not learn a thing – but me?
‘Cause my questions looked for answers
I know the bloke who made the tree.