the way that we do

A lullaby for big kids who are feeling February.

I opened “Uncle” Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and it went right to the section labeled “SO LONG!”, in which he’s announcing all things, in his excited and limitless style, and simultaneously saying a parenthetical " (So long!)" as they come, since both he and they will be going just as quickly.

I think this would be nice at my funeral, but no hurry on that.

lyrics

i want to lift my heart to the sunset
i want to rest my eyes on you
i want to lay me down in the green and brown
until i sail away in the blue
i want to hear the choir invisible
i want to sing without holding back
i want to say that i was present here
and there was nothing that i lacked

    i will raise my eyes and i'll raise my voice
    and i'll raise my spirit to you
    i'll see you and raise you another day more
    because this is the way that we do

i've lost my share of lovers                     
and i've lost my share of kin
i've lost my youth to those younger
but i'd trade it as freely again
and this good earth has borne me forward
it's a mystery to me how
i seem to have gotten away with it all
i survived my whole life up till now
    
    so i raise my eyes and i raise my voice      
    and i raise my spirit to you
    i'll see you and raise you another day more
    because this is the way that we do
    
this road was as long as it has been             
and the map was my feet in the dust
it passed by fields swelling in summer
now they're shaven and fading to rust
it was longer than i had expected
and shorter than ever i knew
so long as it brought me this moment
and so long to me and to you

    now i raise my eyes and i raise my voice     
    and i raise my spirit to you
    i'll see you and raise you another day more
    because this is the way that we do

so now i lift my heart to the sunset             
i rest my eyes on you                            
i lay me down in the green and brown
then i sail off into the blue
i can hear the choir invisible
and i sing...
i say that i am present here
i lack for not a thing

    i raise my eyes and i raise my voice
    and i raise my spirit to you
    i'll see you and raise you another day more
    because this is the way
    this is the way
    this is the way that we do

parts

tjw: guitar, vocals, bass ukulele, hand drum, harmonica