Lyrics

In the Yard, ragas Megh and Madhyamavati

Denied all day by a dank June rain
The setting sun splits the scattered clouds
to bathe the yard in sudden light
and birdsong silent through all the hours
rises from the dripping trees
In a cleft of time wonder floods the yard.

How suddenly the somber comes undone
ravished by radiance from the suspended sun
and resounding ragas of warblers and wrens
singing from hemlock tops
flecked with stippled gold.

Then it's gone.
Drab descends, the cries subside.
This little world of a familiar yard
has still its sudden visions all along
when I arrived into a time not my time
to be plucked from time
by trees alight with song.