A solider, a grandfather and two patriotic birds

Most songs that I write are based out of some experience I've had, sometimes something small that inspires a much bigger idea and sometimes it's something so big that it takes several songs to fully communicate it. Most of the time, it comes from such a private and vulnerable place that I don't tell the story behind it. In the case of the following song, however, there is a story I feel should be told.

In September of 2008 my cousin, who was serving in the 101st infantry in Iraq, was killed in action. A month later, my grandfather who was completely distraught over my cousin's death, died in a car accident. Understandably, this series of events shook my family pretty deeply but we were finally able to get some closure when their ashes were spread at Hahn's Peak in Colorado. I wasn't there but the story is that just as the ashes were spread two Bald Eagles flew overhead. I felt this send off was so fitting and was so moved by it that I wrote this song:

On Wings of an Eagle

On wings of an eagle
Take him to a place he can soar
Fly him away
to a place he can’t hurt anymore
On wings of an eagle
fly him to where he can dream
Where his grandchildren’s laughter fills the air
a place, far away though it may seem
Let him watch over his family
all day at his favorite fishing stream

Let there be peace
if only for a moment
Let there be harmony
Stop the war and let us sing
The world is a quieter place
since you left on eagle's wings

On wings of an eagle
Let him find peace
in a place far away
where his mind can rest at ease
On wings of an eagle
take him where a hero belongs
In the sweet absence of war
let him hear the world’s songs
Give him a soldier’s goodbye
a place void of this worlds wrongs

Let there be peace
if only for a moment
Let there be harmony
Stop the war and let us sing
The world is a quieter place
since you left on eagle's wings

When the years have past
and the eagle long since flown
We won’t forget the legacy
of those we’ve known

So let there be peace
if only for a moment
Let there be harmony
stop the war and let us sing
The world is a quieter place
since you left on eagle's wings

© Jessica Rose Greenwood, 2009