Lonesome Land

Trail's End: Lament to the Lonesome Land

~ a poem by Albert Pendergraft (1894–1944)

(revised & edited by Lloyd Albert Williams-Pendergraft)

You’re a lonesome land, an empty land

A hard land that is rugged and bare

You’re a wild and untamed lonesome land

A proud land that’s demanding but fair

When I pause on some sun-blistered hill

And gaze far o’er your broad boundless range

Where the brisk restless winds never still

And swift sunlight and cloud shadows change

There’s a song in my heart and an ache

A longing indefinitely sad

There’s contentment that sorrow can’t take

And my troubles seem gone and I’m glad

In the night when the hours slowly pass

And a wolf wails her long lonely cry

Where the wind whispers low in the grass

And the stars circle silently by

Your magical spirit holds me fast

In a spell that cannot be undone

While the days of my lifetime shall last

You have blessed me and made me your son

Then softly to me comes your low voice

When I’m so weary and far away

Faintly I hear you, and so rejoice

For you are calling me home to stay

More often now I hear your calm call

While I so long and wearily roam

And my eyes fill with tears that would fall

Were it not that you’re calling me home

Your voice promises comfort and peace

When I rest on your nurturing breast

Then all my cares and sorrows shall cease

And my somnolent soul shall find rest

Give me strength till my battles are won

While along life’s lonely trails I plod

Then at last when my journey is done

Let me rest for all time ‘neath your sod

Let my spirit roam free in your hills

And keep watch as the ages pass by

Till the clamor of humankind stills

When mere men and their follies shall die

Till the heavens and earth have grown old

And the endless dark night has drawn on

When the sun in your path has grown cold

And the days of creation are gone