My Father

I walk in my father’s sunlight;

I stand in my father’s breeze;

I lie in the dappled shadows

Under my father’s trees;

I carry my father’s wisdom,

His love, and his beaming pride;

I live in the world of my father,

Although my father has died.

The dead are not dead to the living;

We feel them and see them smile;

My father was gracious and giving,

And lived for too short a while.

So today I remember my father –

Tomorrow and yesterday, too;

And some nights I dream of my father,

And always am glad when I do.

Too large are my father’s footsteps

For any one foot to fill,

But a thousand are walking with me

Who remember my father still.

I know he can never see me –

The grave is too dark for sight –

But his blood and his heart are in me,

And I live in my father’s light.