the fourth poem from "Songs from the Secret Life" ... find the whole CD at:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/songs-from-the-secret-life/id321760226

Enjoy!

Song to the Mapmaker

Jane Beal's poem "The Beginning of Spring" with world music by Jane Beal and Andrew Beal featuring instruments including Geobones (hardwood tongue drum), bass guitar, flute, and saxophone. For lyrics, see:

http://birdwatchersdiary.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/the-beginning-of-spring/

Enjoy!


The Beginning of Spring

Have you ever listened to the "chitter-cheep-spee" of blue-gray gnatcatchers in the trees at nightfall? This song celebrates their little ways with vocals and guitar by Andrew Beal and flute by Jane Beal. The lyrics are based on this poem:

BIRD-WATCHER’S DIARY ENTRY
ON FIVE OR SIX BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHERS
20 October 2009 – Wheaton, Illinois

The birds of spring are all gone now, only
geese march in military formation
down by the pond, scared witless whenever
I turn loose my dog, my little holy tarnation.

Walking back home in darkening twilight,
skies gray, trees bare, I hear a chitter-cheep
spee and start looking around for the source
of the sound, the unfamiliar singing.

When I see you, you are so small! Blue-gray
gnatcatcher, just one at first, then five, chup,
six!, hopping in the bare branches, looking
down as if you know I am looking up.

Thank you, tiny birds, for coming in the fall,
else there would be no new wings to see at all!

jb

Enjoy the music!

To read and hear more, visit http://birdwatchersdiary.wordpress.com.

Chitter Cheep Spee

Lyrics by Jane Beal, vocals by Andrew Beal ... To read the poem this song is based upon, and see pictures of the swans that inspired it as well, visit: 

http://birdwatchersdiary.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/two-swans-in-darkness/

Enjoy!

As I Wandered On

This is the instrumental version our pazzo (pop + jazz) "Love Song." Andrew Beal's music ... inspired by Jane Beal's poem:

BIRD-WATCHER’S DIARY ENTRY
ON A NORTHERN CARDINAL
14 February 2010 – St. Valentine’s Day – Wheaton, IL

Bright red and beautiful, high in the trees,
you sing out a love-song in the morning
for Saint Valentine, for true-love, for joy ~
and call your sweetheart with all of your longing.

Snow still lies on the ground, trees are yet bare,
but you sing of a springtime that draws near.
Your hope is lovely, your voice sweet, a dream
out of winter’s darkness that I rejoice to hear.

My soul flies up to where you are, so close
to the bright-blue, sunlit sky, enraptured
by the miracle of new life coming
into the world on red-wings turned westward.

If I could sing a love-song like you, bright-heart,
I would call my love to me from the oxcart!

jb

Enjoy!

For more, visit http://birdwatchersdiary.wordpress.com.

Love Song (instrumental)

"This song tells the true story of a hawk that flew around me with wings so close I could touch them!" ~ Jane ... with vocals by Andrew Beal & lyrics by Jane Beal, this song is based on a poem: 

THE BIRD-WATCHER REMEMBERS A WILD HAWK
Football Season 2007 - McCully Stadium, Wheaton, IL

Noble, red-tailed hawk standing guard over
the highest bleachers of the stadium,
alert and ready, always looking out,
morning and night for whatever may come.

One day, I came, and he saw me draw close.
From high above, he dropped down to the street,
fierce and fast as the wind he dove and swooped
around me, wildly – wings and fingertips meet!

Startled, yes! But I loved his wildness and 
his nearness, unusual, strange as love,
not knowing if I should fear him or not,
amazed when he rose to his place above.

From a second-story window, I see,
sometimes, that same hawk watching over me.

jb

Enjoy!

For more, visit http://birdwatchersdiary.wordpress.com

Wings and Fingertips Meet

"Have you ever seen a double rainbow after a monsoon or listened to a bird singing in the high desert near Santa Fe, NM? If so, this is for you; if not, this is for you ... so you can imagine how beautiful it is!" ~ Jane ... With vocals and acoustic guitar picking by Andrew Beal, and lyrics by Jane Beal, this song is based on a poem:

BIRD-WATCHER’S DIARY ENTRY 
ON A BREWER’S BLACKBIRD
July 2009 – St. John’s College, Santa Fe, NM

Brewer’s blackbird woke me up with his song,
singing into my ears until I had to see
his bright-black wings against the gray-green leaves
of the old tree outside my balcony. 

Beyond him, the bell-tower of St. John’s
stands like a white sentinel over us,
wild birds swooping below its crowning cross
like angels bowing before Christ Jesus.

Do a thousand birds fly here from Santa Fe 
shining bright on the high desert below
cradled by mountains, watered by monsoons
under double-rainbows promising joy?

Still listening, I look out and I dream
of the peace that passes understanding.

jb

Enjoy!

For more: http://birdwatchersdiary.wordpress.com

Brewer's Blackbird

This song was inspired by a little girl named Anna and her Great Uncle, Jerry Root, who made a paper bird for her on Christmas Eve. With vocals by Andrew Beal, and lyrics by Jane Beal, this song is based on a poem:

BIRD-WATCHER’S DIARY ENTRY
ON ANNA’S PAPER BIRD
24 December 2009 – Wheaton, Illinois

Anna, at three years old, is like a bird,
a baby robin or a cardinal,
with her bright red hair and her sweet, round face
spinning in her red-velvet Christmas dress.

She’s delighted with her great-uncle Root,
who folds plain white paper into the shapes
of new-born birds! She seizes the one made
just for her in her happy hands and spins

round and round with it, her arms reaching up 
and then diving down: a gloriously
wild first flight, on a beautifully mild
winter’s night, waiting for Saint Nicholas

to bring bright wrappings and gold ribboned gifts,
so she can make a Noël nest for her little one.

jb

Enjoy!

For more, visit http://birdwatchersdiary.wordpress.com

Waiting for Saint Nicholas

This song is for our mother, Barbara, a bird-watcher and gardener. We love you, Mom! With vocals by Andrew Beal and lyrics by Jane Beal, the song is based on a poem:

THE BIRD-WATCHER REMEMBERS 
WATCHING HER MOTHER WATCH A HUMMINGBIRD:
Spring, 2006 - Benicia, California

My mother and her husband are gardeners.
They love planting seeds and watching them grow.
They dig in the dirt, they water and dung,
they prune, and they pray for the snails to go.

When all the flowers bloom in their backyard,
they are beautiful to see, and fragrant,
under the shade of the raywood ash tree
and the flowering pear that China sent.

But none of them could be more beautiful
than my mother standing by her window,
looking at the shiny green hummingbird
sipping nectar, flitting about, aglow!

Lavender wisteria from above
overflows the trellis-hedge like God’s love. 

jb

Enjoy!

For more, visit http://birdwatchersdiary.wordpress.com

My Mother's Hummingbird

This song features acoustic guitar played by Andrew Beal. With vocals by Jane Beal, and music co-created by Andrew Beal and Jane Beal, it is based on a poem: 

BIRD-WATCHER’S DIARY ENTRY
ON A FALLEN BIRD NEST
26 November 2009 – Wheaton, IL

I can smell the snow in the air before
it falls from the sky to the ground, ghostly
white, like a gift from heaven, like the truth—
pure, free, a transforming mystery.

I take my old, blue bike out for a ride
before winter falls over everything,
and I see the wind has knocked a nest from
a tree to the gutter—where no birds sing.

I ride past, toward the cattail marsh reeds,
distressed for a moment till I recall
the birds will build their nests again in the spring,
the light of the sun will warm the earth and all

who turn their faces toward the hope of God—
revealed anew when we thought it was lost.

jb

Enjoy!

For more, visit http://birdwatchersdiary.wordpress.com

Transforming Mystery

This instrumental song is a hymn to our Creator. The music by Andrew Beal was inspired by Jane Beal's poem: 

BIRD-WATCHER’S DIARY ENTRY
ON THE TRUE RETURN OF SPRING
10 April 2010 – Wheaton, Illinois

The trees outside are beginning to green ~
soon their branches will be hidden again.
The birds will build their invisible nests
behind a leafy screen and sing the glen

full of life and love and passion and eggs,
the tiny nestlings who will soon take wing,
exploring ground and sky and middle-air,
the hope of glory and freedom they’ll sing!

Barely budding, every branch and twig shines
like a tracery of green veins, a heart
against the sky, waiting to be filled with
nests, birds, wings, and songs: new life, the Maker’s art!

What spring is being built inside the womb 
of my soul when I see the whole world in bloom?

jb

Enjoy!

For more, see http://birdwatchersdiary.wordpress.com

The Maker's Art

This is a funky tune! With vocals by Andrew Beal and lyrics by Jane Beal, it's based on an onomatopoetic poem:

THE JAZZ BIRD

I. Barnyard Birth Song

Gobble, gobble … cackle, squawk, peep!
Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cluck-cluck-cluck.

II. Sparrows and Robins in Flight

Titter, twitter, tweet!
Cheep-cheep-cheep.

III. Hawk-Hunt and Crow-Feed

Woosh, shhh, scraww, schreech!
Caw-caw-caw.

IV. Dove Mourning 

Coo-coo-coo.

V. Waterfowl on Guard

Quack, quack, quack.
Honk, honk!

VI. Nightbirds

Hoo, hoo, hoo.
Ter-hoo, hoo, ho0.

VII. Red-Wing Blackbird Nesting

Warble-on, whistle-down: sing.
Jazz bird, the whole earth is listening!

jb

For more, visit http://birdwatchersdiary.wordpress.com

Jane Beal

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