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 a head

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.