[Introduction - A Cowboy's Prayer:]
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.
