Over the Rhine - My Father's Body lyrics

My father’s body lies beneath the snow High on a hill in Holmes County, Ohio From there you can look out across the fields A farmer guides his horses home as day to darkness bends And finally yields Dad’s gravestone holds the words Be Still My Soul A song we sang together long ago And there were times we even shared one hymnbook His right hand and my left hand side-by-side holding pages Of music But now his hands hold nothing but the earth Hands that held me moments after my birth And so we must all finally surrender As we release our grip upon whatever we hold dear And call familiar My father’s body lies beneath the snow And I’m still learning how to let him go I’ve come to know him better since he’s gone And often wondered if or how I could’ve been a different Better son My father’s body lies beneath the snow Sometimes on Christmas Eve that’s where I go I hear faint Christmas bells from far away Ring out all the unspoken words I’ve never found within myself To say