Grief Walks Beside Me

I used to think that sorrow Was a storm a man outruns A hard black sky behind him Till he reaches cleaner sun But grief ain't weather passing It don't break and blow away It wakes up when you wake up And it walks with you all day

It sits with me at supper It rides with me at dawn

Grief walks beside me Like an old familiar ghost Not to drag me under — Just to tell me what I loved the most It don't speak much mercy But it keeps your memory near And every mile I carry it It feels like you are here So I quit fighting shadows Quit praying it'd set me free Now I just keep walking While grief walks beside me

It stood there in the graveyard When they folded up the flag In the preacher's trembling silence In the weight I couldn't crack It followed me through winter Through the birthdays and the snow Through the first spring when the whole world bloomed And I hated it for so

For every laugh that came back For every morning song

Grief walks beside me Like an old familiar ghost Not to drag me under — Just to tell me what I loved the most It lays a hand on memory When my heart begins to bleed And reminds me love don't vanish Just because we buried grief No, the dirt can take the body But not what it meant to me So I just keep walking While grief walks beside me

The Romans carved their sorrows Into marble, names, and stone The old cowboys kept riding With the dead inside their bones And maybe that's the answer Ain't to heal and leave behind Maybe grief's the scar love leaves So we know it once burned bright

I see you in the firelight I hear you in the pines I find you in the hard days When I nearly lose my mind And on the nights I break down When the dark won't let me sleep I don't ask God to take it now — I ask Him let me keep

Grief walks beside me And I finally know its name It's the price of having held you And I'd pay it all again Let it ride there in the silence Let it cut and let it be 'Cause a man who truly loved you Ain't the man he used to be So if you see me still standing It ain't because I found relief It's because I learned to carry The love inside the grief

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