Heartsong

Color all my soul with song
Paint my passion blue and green
So earth and sky might sing along
With every note of being

Charcoal sketch my lonely hours
Soft as sable robes of night
Heal my heart with summer flowers
Mark my days with golden light

Fill my mind through eyes of beauty
Make my spirit smile and sigh
Give these precious moments to me
Not the words of sad goodbye

Hold my hand; a tiny bird
Whose heart might flutter like a wing
Terrified by life uncertain
I’m a frail and tender thing

Taste my tears just like the sea
Salty full of life and old
Blended by eternity
Hear the stories in me told

Make my epitaph a poem
Offer me no eulogy
Of mourning words when I am gone
Not for simple, foolish me

Youth is wasted on the young
Wisdom is not taught at college
Age would have its memory sung
In understanding more than knowledge

Feel the fire that is my blood
Burning in my secret part
When my song is understood
You will know the poet’s heart