Absent Friends
                   words and music  2001 by Bill Sutton


Capo 2

     C                 Em+G        F               C
     (D)               (F#m+A)     (G)             (D)
Once more we've come together, the way we have for years
   F(G)              C(D)           G(A)
To sing our songs in circles and to share our joy and tears.
    F(G)               Em(F#m)          F(G)          C(D)
And once more when our voices raise the undertone has changed,
 F(G)            C(D)            G(A)
Again the chorus of our lives is harshly rearranged.
    F(G)              C(D)          F(G)             C(D)
The notes we sing are beautiful but somehow slightly wrong
      F(G)          C(D)    G(A)     C(D)
For another note is missing from the song.


So we hug each other closely, tell tales into the night.
We sing the songs we used to sing, we try to make it right.
We sing the songs of sorrow and we sing the songs of pain
Then we sing the songs of laughter and we start to smile again.
We raise a hymn to Absent Friends who were not with us long
When another note is missing from the song.

             F(G)          G(A)           F(G)           C(D)
BRIDGE:   We sing away the evening and we sing until the dawn.
              F(G)       C(D)              G(A)        G7(A7)
          The harmony is diff'rent but the melody goes on ...

For it's only our own loneliness that drives us into fear.
We know that they still sing with us, though we have no ears to hear.
They sing to us of friendship and the joy that we still share,
That every time the circle grows, their voices will be there.
And their love will find its echoes when a new voice comes along
And another note is added to the song.

Yes, the chorus swells with gladness as the circle rolls along
And another note is added to the song.