have you ever heard the green grass growing
in a glen among the trees?
have you ever smelled the rain a’coming
on a Southern August morning?
have you ever sat on a grassy slope
watching baseball in the spring?
have you ever cast a flyrod in a pool
on a creek chocked full of bream?
have you ever played mumbly peg
with your jackknife under an elm?

i did a long, long time ago;
moments i cherish;

i fear there are few who have such memories
with the changes we have had;
perhaps there are adequate substitutions;
i do not know if the replacements meet
the memories that i have,
but
lord, i hope that they think they are
because
mine have made me whole.