Hearken, children, to the sound

A bird dives, screaming, to the ground

Rise out of the water!

Stand up from the water!

Children, children, rise!

Dipped in Jordan, cleansed from guile

Israel waited all the while

To see you rise:

Fill your widening eyes!

To the glory, glory,

Riding on the air in glowing glory

Writhing on this earth in the mortal human story

Out of the rolling Jordan’s flood

Rising and stand on riverbottom mud

Riverbank trees a-quiver in the wind–

Take it all in! children

Ezekiel was taken up

And John of Patmos, too

Rise and see the signs of the times

Let the spirit raise you, children.

let yourselves be taken up

As David struck his sheepgut lyre

To raise his king from dread,

When Jesus from Isaiah read

The elders could not raise a hand

Resurrection spread the land

The dead no more could keep it down

Paul, that saint of fleshly woe,

Three heavens high his soul did go

And many more you’ll come to know, children

In your rising from the waters

Into the wind by the river

In the glory of your rising, children, children