This is one of my favorite songs in the world. I have sung it at many memorial services - including my grandmother's. I'm sure it's slightly different in the original; I'm typing it as I sing it.

Si recorded this on his album I'll Be There, and John McCutcheon has also recorded it. One day I hope to.

Dan Schatz



What Will I Leave
(Si Kahn)

Late in the evening as light slips away
And we silently gather together
Searching the faces of those who are here
For the ones who have left us forever

Chorus:
What will I leave, what will I leave?
What will I leave behind?
When I am gone, who'll carry on?
What will I leave behind?

Who will remember the words of the brave
Who have lifted us higher and higher?
Who will remember the lives they have paid
For a time lived too close to the fire?

Chorus

Where are the one who caught flame in the night
Warmed by the fires of devotion?
Who measure their lives by the truth in the light
They are burning like lamps on the ocean.

Chorus

The hearts are the ones who inherit your lives
And rest in the truth you have spoken.
Memory will echo the trust that you kept
And like you, it will never be broken.

Chorus