In Gloucester Cathedral, on Saturday night
I came to your flower show, blown like a kite
And I stood by the tombstones, and gazed at the lights

On the altar
And the horse-faced old ladies and tweedy-toned men
Of county society they came and they went

With pamphlets and leaflets of Christian events
For the fall


But ain't it all just like Jesus
Crying in the rain?
Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?


Oh the half-a-crown programmes on sale at the door
Were clutched in the teeth of the rich and the poor

As they swayed in an undertone conscience-free
Forward together
And the outstretching hands of the swains of the Lord

Sold the communing commuters the word
With LPs of Mary and photos of God
In the hall


But ain't it all just like Jesus
Crying in the rain?

Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?

Oh the flowers hushed the air as the columns advanced

To the clinking of coins in a ritual dance
On flagstones that ached for a chance of a chance
Of escaping

And the mystical statues looked down so depressed
At the endless possessors becoming possessed
And the costumed confessors who never confessed


To the wall


But ain't it all just like Jesus
Crying in the rain?
Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?


Oh I saw a blue hair-rinse, I saw a black tooth
I saw a false face in a telephone booth

And the stark white-faced roses that screamed out the truth
Of their dying
And a walrus's dreams and a carpenter's love

Absorbed like a hand in a great rubber glove
And flown like a flag over battlefields
Factories and all


Ain't it all just like Jesus
Crying in the rain?

Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?

Oh I dodged the collection box choirboy and out

To the streets where the wind shook my hair with a shout
And the dusty-faced daisies were blowing about
So freely

And Christ in the ruins was wandering again
As he walked with the beggars and talked to the lame
And danced with the children and sailors who came

At his call

But ain't it all just like Jesus

Crying in the rain?
Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?


Ain't it all just like Jesus
Crying in the rain?
Ain't it all just Nazareth again?