Bridges by Utah Philips

Time is an enormous long river
And I'm standing in it
Just as you're standing in it
My elders were the tributaries
And everything they thought
And every struggle they went through
And everything they gave their lives to
And every song they created
And every poem that they laid down
Flows down to me...

And I can reach down into that
river and take out what I need
To get through this world
Bridges
From my time to your time

As my elders from their time to my time
And we'll put into the river
And we let it go
And it flows away from us, and away from us
'Til it no longer has our name, our identity
It has its own utility, its own use
And people will take what they need to make it part of their lives.