bury me not on the lone prairie

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.