My Father's Body

My father's body lies beneath the snow
 High on a hill in Holmes County, Ohio
 From there you can look out across the fields
 A farmer guides his horses home as day to darkness bends
 And finally yields
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 Dad's gravestone holds the words Be Still My Soul
 A song we sang together long ago
 And there were times we even shared one hymnbook
 His right hand and my left hand side-by-side holding pages
 Of music
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 But now his hands hold nothing but the earth
 Hands that held me moments after my birth
 And so we must all finally surrender
 As we release our grip upon whatever we hold dear
 And call familiar
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 My father's body lies beneath the snow
 And I'm still learning how to let him go
 I've come to know him better since he's gone
 And often wondered if or how I could've been a different
 Better son
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 My father's body lies beneath the snow
 Sometimes on Christmas Eve that's where I go
 I hear faint Christmas bells from far away
 Ring out all the unspoken words I've never found within myself
 To say