Eulogy (For a Black Person)

Lay me down in the sacred ground

Keep me from the cold

Keep me in the deep warm Earth

Where the stars can see my soul

Take me where them trees stand tall

By the waters in the river bend

Let me face the rising sun

Commend my spirit to the wind

Make no monuments or mortal crowns

Or speak my name again when you lay me down

Lay me where the forest blooms

In the land that's seen no plough

Where the fragrance on the western wind Carried from every springtime flower

Give me peace and give me rest

Lay me down on the mountain crest

Bury me softly without a sound

Let the scrub grow back across that mound

Make no monuments or mortal crowns

Or speak my name again when you lay me down

Bury me quick and bury me deep

Without no coffin or shrouded sheet

Wrap me in the Mother Earth

So I can nurture the land's rebirth

Give me joy and give me song

Carry the struggle wide and long

Do not grieve and do not weep

Mortal memories are all we keep, yeah

Make no monuments or mortal crowns

Or speak my name again when you lay me down

Let the winter dew fall on that grave

Let me see the night sky blaze

See the moon in the winter wane

Knifin' through that cosmic maze

Give me water give me fire

Don't give me monuments of stone

Give me rainbows in the sky

Give me back my land in which to lie

Make no monuments or mortal crowns

Or speak my name again when you lay me down