My uncle wrote this when he was a teenager. Probably one of the most influential poems of my life. They say he and I were similar.
***
I’ll Play the Part
Have you ever thought that the role you’ve
got in life
Does not belong to you?
Have you felt the part you’ve played from
the start
Is as foreign as the sky is blue?
Do you ever find when you probe your
mind
You’re not the character you play?
Have you ever felt that your cards were
dealt
From the wrong deck on the wrong
day?
Sometimes I think that I’ve been
misplaced a thousand years,
Displaced a thousand miles
I feel that I have shed someone else’s
tears,
Worn someone else’s smiles
I feel that I have lived someone else’s
fears, and
Passed though someone else’s trials.
But, I know there’s a plan, some reason for
man
A purpose God alone does know.
And so, I’ll open up my heart, yes I’ll play
the part.
Lord of love, you’re behind every show
And though I don’t see what the plan’s to
be,
I know you’ve got it in your hand.
My place in this world soon will be unfurled
Soon the mystery I will understand.
It may seem now that I’ve been misplaced a
thousand years,
Displaced a thousand miles.
It may seem that I’ve shed someone else’s
tears,
Worn someone else’s smiles.
It may seem that I’ve lived someone else’s
fears,
Passed through someone else’s trials.
But, I’ll open up my heart and I’ll play the part
Cause Lord, I know you’ve got me in your
hands.
Don Berry 1970 something.