THE OLD FARMERS PRAYER​

Time just keeps moving on ​

Many years have come and gone ​

But I grow older without regret ​

My hopes are in what may come yet.​

On the farm I work each day ​

This is where I wish to stay ​

I watch the seeds each season sprout ​

From the soil as the plants rise out.​

I study Nature and I learn ​

To know the earth and feel her turn ​

I love her dearly and all the seasons ​

For I have learned her secret reasons. ​

All that will live is in the bosom of Earth ​

She is the loving mother of all birth ​

But all that lives must pass away ​

And go back again to her someday. ​

My life too will pass from Earth ​

But do not grieve, I say, there will be other birth ​

When my body is old and all spent ​

And my soul to Heaven has went. ​

Please compost and spread me on this plain ​

So my body Mother Earth can claim ​

That is where I wish to be ​

Then Nature can nourish new life with me. ​

So do not for me grieve and weep ​

I did not leave, I only sleep ​

I am with the soil here below ​

Where I can nourish life of beauty and glow. ​

Here I can help the falling rain ​

Grow golden fields of ripening grain ​

From here I can join the winds that blow ​

And meet the softly falling snow. ​

Here I can help the sun’s warming light ​

Grow food for birds of gliding flight ​

I can be in the beautiful flowers of spring ​

And in every other lovely thing. ​

So do not for me weep and cry ​

I am here, I do not die. ​

AUTHOR UNKNOWN