Oh, Bury Me Not

[Recitation:] Lord, I've never lived where churches

grow I loved creation better as it stood That day you

finished it so long ago And looked upon your work and

called it good I know that others find you in the light

That sifted down through tinted window panes And yet

I seem to feel you near tonight In this dim,

quiet starlight on the plains I thank you,

Lord, that I'm placed so well That you've made my freedom

so complete That I'm no slave to whistle,

clock or bell Nor weak eyed prisoner of Waller Street

Just let me live my life as I've begun And give me

work that's open to the sky Make me a partner of the

wind and sun And I won't ask a life that's soft or

high Let me be easy on the man that's down Let me be

square and generous with all I'm careless sometimes,

Lord, when I'm in town But never let them say I'm mean

or small Make me as big and open as the plains And

honest as the horse between my knees Clean as a wind

that blows behind the rains Free as the hawk that circles

down the breeze Forgive me,

Lord, if sometimes I forget You know about the reasons

that are hid You understand the things that gall or

fret Well, you knew me better than my mother did Just

keep an eye on all that's done or said And right me



sometimes when I turn aside And guide me on that long,

dim trail ahead That stretched upward toward the great divide



Oh, bury me not on the lone prairie These words came

low and mournfully From the pallid lips of a youth

who lay On his dying bed at the close of day



Oh, bury me not and his voice failed there But we took

no heed to his dying prayer In a shallow grave just

six by three We buried him there on the lone prairie.