Prayer
Simple Simple Love
Let Her Go
What Will It Be Like In Heaven
A Simple Story
Little Bird

Prayer 

©Betsy Rose 1990, 2012

This is how I’d like my life to be
To live as trusting as a leaf on a tree
Let the seasons take good care of me
This is how I’d like to be
 
To not be fearful of the falling down
Not cling too tightly when my time comes round
Gladly sink into the winter ground
Knowing the best of me
will come back around
 
This is how I’d like my life to be
To be a ripple on a midnight sea
And let the mighty waves wash over me
This is how I’d like to be.
 
To not be fearful of the ebb and flow
To kiss the shore and then to let it go
To rise up to the sky when warm winds blow
Fall back down again in flakes of snow
 
This is how I’d like my life to be
To find my music and to set it free
Open up to all the harmony
This is how I’d like to be
 
To not be fearful of the wounded throat
To sing the beauty of the broken note
Trust my breath and let the song unfold
Risk it all and let the truth be told

This is how I’d like my life to be
Just sitting here right now with
you and me
A little moment in eternity
This is how I’d like to be
To live as trusting as a leaf on a tree
To be a ripple on a midnight sea
Open up to all the harmony
This is how I’d like to be

Simple Simple Love 

©Betsy Rose 2013
 
When the words fail
Will you hold my hand
It’s all I need
It’s what I understand
 
When the night comes
Will you stay with me
It’s all I need
To help me go to sleep
 
Oh simple, simple love
It’s all that’s left of us
When everything has turned to dust
I‘ll put my trust
In simple simple love  
 
When the end comes
Will you breathe with me
It’s all I need
Just your quiet company
 
When I’m gone from here
Will you still sing my song
Will you carry on
With the music in your heart
 
Oh simple simple love
Hold me one more time
Though I am leaving you behind
I’ll leave enough
 Of simple simple love
Though everything will turn to dust
We’ll put our trust
In simple simple love

Let Her Go 

©Betsy Rose 1984

If I could lift my eyes for just a moment
I swear I’d see your wings against the sky
But I’ve been studying my hands so helpless and so human
They could not touch the fever in your eyes
Still I cannot help but reach after
your fading form
Or study your picture for a clue
Oh these bodies have their limits
They’re a temporary home
And yours has done its duty and is gone
 
So let her go
She’s a feather in the wind
Gone back to wherever life begins
And for all the love we know
She was only here on loan in flesh and bone
So let her go.
 
The wonder of new life, birth into sunlight
And who remembers where we were before
It fades back into darkness as we make this world our home
But always something beckons
from a far off shore
My heart forever hungry for a bigger sky
For a truth drawn large before the human eye
Oh these senses have their limits
The fly within a cage
Regretfully I bow before an empty page.
 
And I let her go…
 
We’ve scaled the highest peaks, we’ve plundered the ocean
We’ve made machines to measure stars and dust
But I’ve been studying my heart in a different kind of mirror
Since you’ve gone I have been driven into trust
Like a field beneath the plow my heart is broken
The words that might have healed were never spoken
But these words, they have their limits
They’re clutching at the air
Still I sing my song believing you are there
 
And I let you go
You’re a feather in the wind
Gone back wherever life begins
And for all the love we know
We are only here on loan in flesh and bone
So let it go.
Let it go
We’re a feather in the wind
We all go back wherever life begins
And for all the love we know
We are only here on loan in flesh and bone
 So let it go

What Will It Be Like In Heaven 

©Betsy Rose 2013

What will it be like in heaven
What kind of world will I find
Will all my broken parts be welcome
Will I miss the life I left behind)
 
All my dreams of perfection
That keep me working hard down here
Will I see it all as illusion
Wasted effort, wasted years
When I go to heaven
 
Will I see the light, will I see clearly
Will my life make sense when it’s done
Will I finally feel loved completely
No shame for what I left undone
When I go to heaven
 
I’d like to think I’ll feel at home
Like it’s a place I’ve already been
I’d like to shed this gravity
Fly like I did as a kid in my dreams
 
I hope my parents will be there
I miss them every single day
And the baby girl gone so long ago
Do babies always stay that way
When they go to heaven
 
What will it be like in heaven
If being is even in the plan
And if it’s just a long dark silence
Can I keep living here the best I can
Without heaven
If there is no heaven
No heaven
Heaven

A Simple Story 

©Betsy Rose 2010

When I meet my maker
Three questions I will ask
One about the future,
the other ‘bout the past
Pray tell me where we’re going
Where did we begin
And what’s the purpose of it all
As through the night we spin
 
I need a simple story
That makes it’s meaning clear
‘Cause someday I’ll say goodbye
To all I treasure here.
I need a simple story
Like holding my mother’s hand
‘Cause the old I am growing
The less I understand
 
Science has its theories,
Its proofs and measurements
A tiny point exploding
In the mighty firmament
And all the living universe,
Everything we know
Came tumbling out to fill the sky
12 billion years ago
And all the great traditions
Have stories of our birth
With Gods and magic animals
That covered all the earth
I tell them to my children
It helps them go to sleep
But underneath it all
The dark is silent, and it’s deep
 
I need a simple story….
 
And though I’m feeling broken
Feel I’ve lost my way
The years have left their mark on me
I can see it in my face
I know we’re born for something
I know it’s not in vain
And my heart sings with a story
That words cannot explain
 
And I need that simple story,
singing in my ears
‘Cause someday I will say goodbye…

Welcome To The Circle
All Sorrows Are The Same River
Take Your Rest
Going Home
Long For This World
No Better Time To Love

Welcome To The Circle

©Betsy Rose 1991

Welcome to the circle
How far have you come
Do you need some company
A candle and a song
 Are you feeling weary
Tired of being strong
 Welcome to the circle
 It’s a place where you belong
 
Do you have a burden
That feels too much to bear
 Do you have a bitterness
You don’t know how to share
 Do you get too angry
 To breathe or laugh or pray
 Well there’s no one in this circle
 Who has never felt this way
 
So welcome to this circle
 Whatever brought you here
 The valleys and the mountain tops
 The muddy and the clear
 And know your work is worthy
 And know your heart is true
 And know that all you give away
 Will come circling back to you
 You’ve got to know that
 all you give away
 Will come circling back to you.

All Sorrows Are The Same River 

©Betsy Rose 2012
 
All sorrows are the same river
All sorrows bring us all together
 
And the waters of time sweep us all away
May I remember to love
and not forget to pray
Though I can’t see through the tears
Through the loneliness and fears
But there are times I know for sure
That you are truly right here
Telling me
 
All sorrows are the same river
All sorrows bring us all together

Take Your Rest 

Betsy Rose 2011
 
Rest your heart, rest your mind
 Rest your body close to mine
Rest your head upon my breast
 Let it go and take your rest
 
The sun goes down, it will not rise
For you’ll be seeing with different eyes
Into the light that has no name
Into that sweet eternal flame
 
Bid farewell to this good earth
And to this body you’ve known from birth
It served you well it gave it’s best
Now let it go and take your rest
 
Rest your heart, rest your mind
Rest this body you leave behind
Rest in peace without regrets
Welcoming  arms will give you rest
 
Your precious love we won’t forget
In the light you’ll find your rest
                         

Going Home 

©Betsy Rose 2006
 
Going home, going home
Your journey’s at an end
 And you’re going home
Safely home, safely home
Your journey’s at an end
And you’re safely home
 
Life is long, life is brief
First a green and tender shoot
Then a falling leaf
Some days seem endless
But the years fly by so swift
When the whole is gathered in
You know each moment was a gift
 
Going home, going home…
 
Thanks be to springtime, 
thanks be to fall
For the seasons of our lives
Thanks for it all
We were never meant to stay
We are always on our way
And we never walk alone,
We are always heading home
 
Going home, going home…

Long For This World 

©Betsy Rose 2013
 
I won’t be long for this world
But I belong to this world
Is it wrong to love this world
When it won’t be long
‘til I’m gone from this world
 
My daddy’s gone from this world
But every time I think of him
I’m just a little girl
Riding high up on his shoulder
And to this day, I hear him say “light someone’s way-
We’re here to help each other”
 
I won’t be long for this world…
 
My mama dwells beneath my skin
When I see her face and
hear her voice I’m whole again
I can’t imagine a world where she is gone
But you’ll see her smile inside my eyes,
You’ll hear her voice inside my song
 
I won’t be long for this world…
 
You and me are tender friends
Two old trees grown together,
bound by root and limb
Battered by storms and
blessed by laughter
And one may fall, the other stand,
Still giving shade to the ones come after
 
I won’t be long for this world
 But I belong to this world
 Is it wrong to love this world
 When it won’t be long ‘til I’m gone
from this world
 

No Better Time To Love 

©Betsy Rose 2010
(Written after 2010 Midterm Election)
 
Shine a light across the darkness
Like the moon across the waves
In this midnight of our journey
Show the world a shining face
Even earth and sky can tumble
The ocean deep, the stars above
All that we know is bound to crumble
There is no better time to love
 
The news will never tell the story
We have to learn it on our own
Reach for the truth you can believe in
The time is urgent, take it slow
When even faith and hope lie broken
When all we do is not enough
We face the dark with eyes wide open
There is no better time to love
 
The news will never tell the story
But we have known it all along
In the silence we remember
And note by note we find the song
So shine a light across the darkness
We’ll never know if it’s enough
We’re holding hands
hand with eyes wide open
There is no better time to love
 
Give me your hand with eyes wide open
There is no better time to love

Little Bird 

©Betsy Rose 2012

Little bird gone from our nest
Little bird, my little happiness
I thought you’d stay a little longer
I’d teach you how to fly
when you grew stronger
 
But little bird you found the sky
Before your time you found your wings
to fly
I cannot understand the reason
Why some sweet flowers bloom
before their season
 
Little heart mi corazon
Little heart so hard to let you go
But on this night we hold our candles bright
Inside the dark, we find a little light
 
And little bird your nest is here
Inside my heart I hold you very near
And all the love my heart had planned to bring
I’ll send it like a breeze beneath your wings
You little bird
Mi Corazon
My little heart
My little one