Today it was March, but I walked in snow
And the wind froze the blood in my cheeks,
But in my heart I was back in the mountains again,
On that ridge above wild Stauffer Creek.
Remembering the songs that we sang in those hills
Gazing out on the lights down below?
We were young, knew the truth, and the music, alive;
I still feel them, those songs long ago.
Oh, we sang them with passion, we sang them with joy,
And we sang them out boldly and clear.
And we sang and we taught and we gave from the heart,
And we shared what we knew year by year.

You’re gone now from this life, though
The work still goes on, and my voice now is scratchy and old,
But tonight, as I heard them, I heard them with you,
In the March wind and lingering cold.
And we sang them with passion, we sang them with joy,
We sang them out boldly and clear,
And we sang and we taught and we gave from the heart,
And we shared what we knew year by year.
O remember those songs that we sang in the hills
Gazing out on those lights down below;
We were young, knew the truth, and the music was life,
I still feel them those songs long ago.

And the spring it will come, I don’t doubt it is there--
Too, that Place that we knew and we’ll know.
Together again, our voices we’ll blend,
And we’ll gaze on these lights down below.
O, we’ll sing them with passion, we’ll sing them with joy
We’ll sing them out boldly and clear,
We’ll sing what we’ve taught, and we’ll share from the heart--
Well beyond age and too, beyond years.
Remembering the songs that we sang in the hills
Gazing out on the lights down below,
And in youth, armed with truth, and the music alive
We’ll live on with those songs long ago.

03/17/2025

Author's Note: The form is reminiscent of a villanelle; the memories are of Camp Bartlett B S A in the 1980's. He who is gone was my best friend both in youth and throughout manhood--lost to cancer--but no doubt living on.

Posted on 03/17/2025
Copyright © 2025 Leonard M Hawkes