Muted Land

(Words written by Grandfather Lloyd Richards, 1929)

There was a friend upon whom once Nature played her joke

She gave him width instead of height

And hands too large for chivalry

A strength of body quite too great

To satisfy a soul that craved aesthetic light

She must have smiled when in that frame

Was placed a heart so delicate

For it would vibrate melody

Until her artifice produced wild rhapsody

With eyes that sought insatiably

The harmonies of life he found

But discord and a dark despair

And so the jest so well conceived turned tragedy

The spirit tired and sought release