Sunday music: Maple’s Lament

Loving both plants and traditional music, this Laurie Lewis song on this morning’s Nonesuch radio show struck a chord. Listen here.

Apparently she wrote this when business was slow at her fiddle-making shop and the violins hanging on the wall spoke to her.

The Maple’s Lament

(Laurie Lewis/Spruce and Maple Music)

When I was alive the birds would nest upon my boughs
And all through long winter nights the storms would ’round me howl
And when the day would come, I’d raise my branches to the sun
I was the child of earth and sky, and all the world was one

But now that I am dead the birds no longer sing in me
And I feel no more the wind and rain as when I was a tree
But bound so tight in wire strings, I have no room to grow
And I am but the slave who sings, when master draws the bow

But sometimes from my memory I can sing the birds in flight
And I can sing of sweet dark earth and endless starry nights
But oh, my favorite song of all, I truly do believe
Is the song the sunlight sang for me while dancing on my leaves