If Anybody Hears Us – Song Description
“The fears we keep behind our smiles, the hurts we never show.” Nobody in this song is named, and I think that’s a deliberate choice rather than a limitation of the songwriting. It isn’t really asking whether something is listening to a handful of specific griefs I could have described in detail — a mother in a hospital corridor, a man alone in a parked car with nowhere else to be. It’s asking whether anything is listening to the sheer ordinary volume of all of it happening at once, most of it unremarkable enough that nobody nearby even thinks to look for it. I wrote two full versions of this one before I trusted either enough to let it go, largely because it’s easy for a song like this to tip into something sentimental, and I wanted it to stay closer to an honest, slightly frightening question than a comforting answer. I still don’t know the answer it’s asking for. I don’t think the song does either, and I’d rather it stayed that way than pretended otherwise.
If Anybody Hears Us
Verse 1
There’s a light on in the corner house
Though the hour’s getting late
Someone’s sitting at the kitchen table
With more than they can take
The world outside keeps turning
Like nothing’s gone amiss
But somewhere in the quiet
A whispered prayer begins
Chorus
If anybody hears us
If anybody knows
The fears we keep behind our smiles
The hurts we never show
If anybody hears us
When hope is wearing thin
Send a little light to guide us
Till we find our way again
Verse 2
There’s a man inside a parked car
Staring through the rain
Trying hard to find an answer
That never seems to come
And somewhere in a hospital
A mother bows her head
Holding on to faith alone
Beside a waiting bed
Chorus
If anybody hears us
If anybody knows
The fears we keep behind our smiles
The hurts we never show
If anybody hears us
When hope is wearing thin
Send a little light to guide us
Till we find our way again
Bridge
Then I thought about the millions
Scattered through the night
In little rooms and lonely places
Searching for a light
Every whispered prayer ascending
Every silent plea
Rising from the hearts of ordinary souls
Like waves upon the sea
Build
And maybe we’re not shouting
Into emptiness above
Maybe every cry is carried
By something greater than our love
Final Chorus
You can hear us
You have always known
The fears we keep behind our smiles
The burdens we have borne
You can hear us
Through every age and land
And every lonely voice tonight
Is safely in Your hands
Lyrics Michael Forty
Voice Michael Forty