Roy Clark-Yesterday, When I Was Young lyrics

Yesterday When I Was Young  
  Herbert Kretzmer  
    
  Yesterday when I was young  
  the taste of life was  
 sweet as rain upon my tongue.  
  I teased at life as  
 if it were a foolish g ame,  
  the way the evening breeze  
 may tease a candle fl ame.  
  The thousand dreams I  
 dreamed, the splendid things I planned  
  I always built alas  
 on weak and shifting sand.  
  I lived by night and  
 shunned the naked light of the day  
  and only now I  
 see how the years ran away.  
    
  Yesterday when I was young  
  so many drinking songs  
 were waiting to be sung,  
  so many wayward pleasures  
 lay in store for me  
  and so much pain  
 my dazzled eyes refused to see.  
  I ran so fast that  
 time and youth at last ran out,  
  I never stopped to  
 think what life was all about  
  and every conversation I can now recall  
  concerned itself with me  
 and nothing else at all.  
    
  Yesterday the moon was blue  
  and every crazy day  
 brought something new to do.  
  I used my magic  
 age as if itwere a wand  
  and never saw  
 the waste and emptiness beyond.  
  The g ame of love  
 I played with arrogance and pride  
  and every flame I  
 lit too quickly quickly died.  
  The friedns I made  
 all seemed somehow to drift away  
  and only I am left  
 on stage to end the play.  
  There are so many songs  
 in me that won`t be sung,  
  I feel the bitter  
 taste of tears upon my tongue.  
  The time has come for me  
 to pay for yesterday when I was young.