Heaven (Words: Mary Phillips, Music Larry Long)

Unpublished

I talked to God the other day,
And one thing God made clear.
“You say you love heaven
You want to go to heaven.
Why don’t you have yourself
A heaven down here?”

“But I want to get to heaven, sit on a cloud,
Dance and sing, jump for joy, and laugh out loud.”

“Don’t be silly,” the good Lord said,
“Heaven’s here and now.
Why wait until you’re dead.”

Heaven’s no exploitation
Freedom from domination
Heaven’s the Beauty of the Earth
The perfect joy of each new birth.
Why don’t you have yourself
A heaven down here?”

Do away with corporate greed
Help those in need
Feed the poor, end all war
And we’ll have a little heaven right here.

“Right here, right now,
Yes we’ll all have heaven down here.”

Words by Mary Phillips
Music by Larry Long

Copyright Larry Long Publishing 2007 / BMI

Four weeks before Christmas in 2007 I received a phone call from my old friend, Dr. Jack Phillips. Jack was my Professor of Philosophy at St. Cloud State University in 1970. That was a long time ago and it had been an equally long time since him and I had spoken. He said, “I asked my wife, Mary, what she wanted for Christmas. She said she’d like for you, Larry Long, to put her poem Heaven to music.” Though my mind was reeling with excuses related to being too busy, I said, “I’d be honored to, Jack.” Two weeks later, I had the melody, recorded it, and delivered it to them in time for Christmas.

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