A brief trio of meditations. Reminders. Gratitudes. For prayer. For blessing. For love. Use this in the morning with Modeh Ani or as a kavanah to bring in Shabbat.
This is a new High Holy Day season meditative song on tshuva by my friend and musical collaborator David Franklin. David suggested taking selected phrases from two of my prayer poems, combining them into one song. I fell in love with his musical expression, especially the instrumental and nigun woven in, but felt that the words as originally written needed revision. We spent quite a while adjusting the words to my satisfaction, as well as selecting the Hebrew. Thanks to CCAR Press for their support of this project. Listen to the song by clicking on the triangle in the bar below. Click here to open a YouTube video of David singing this piece. Follow along with the words, beneath the download link. The sheet music PDF is our gift to you.
This prayer/poem in the voice of the spiritual traveler was inspired by the birds of Jerusalem, their many voices and songs in the early morning. It’s a companion piece to two other prayer/poems using birds as the central metaphor, “Bird is Bird” and “Soarbird.” Sometimes the spiritual traveler will say a prayer with his eyes, with her heart, with his breath, with her being. And sometimes that prayer will be “said” by listening to other voices.
First Bird
The first bird of morning
Sings alone,
For the joy of breathing,
For the glory of seeing,
For the love of being,
Alive and awake
In this world.
The second bird of morning
Sings a duet
In the gentle breeze,
As daybreak meets the earth
With the wonder of being
Alive and awake
In this world.
Then the chorus appears.
The pitch rises.
Still, they make space
For solos and for silence.
They make space
To hear
They make space
To rejoice in being
Alive and awake
In this world.
Postscript: I use the phase “…alive and awake in Your world…” in the prayer titled “Every Beginning.” Here’s a short, short story about listening as a way of prayer. It’s called “Chava bat Chana.”
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A brief trio of meditations. Reminders. Gratitudes. For prayer. For blessing. For love. Use this in the morning with Modeh Ani or as a kavanah to bring in Shabbat.
