I never realized how lucky I was

To live on the face of this earth:

How blessed I am with many gifts

In and out and over rivers swift

Past the pastures most dearth.

My own thoughts could not comprehend

How the scenery takes one’s breath away,

In a breeze for an instant, then ahead

Tossing and turning like a silly dance embedded

On the air where there’re scents so gay.

Time wouldn’t be too cruel like death,

Raced my mind full of idealistic haste.

But the pastures are like stone so precious,

Yet like a fairy, is gentle and gracious,

And much like us men, mortality is its fate.

I never realized how lucky I was

To live on the face of this earth.

I was even more of an unnerving fool

That I’ve been recently oh so cruel

To the pastures I should protect with my oath.

So, like Lancelot and the lot on Camelot,

An olive branch I shall pass on to the earth;

So long as I live, breathe, write, and talk,

So long as I can run, jump, fight, and walk;

To the pastures I will protect, for this is my oath.