I Choose You Forever 1983 song for our wedding 9/10/1983

To share in the laughter
To comfort the pain
To reach for tomorrows
For walks in the rain

I choose you forever
My best love, my friend
I choose you forever
My best love, my friend

For long lazy Summers
And Autumns of gold
For Winters by fires
For Spring's secrets told

I choose you forever
My best love, my friend
I choose you forever
My best love my friend

For days yet to happen
For those which are done
For one we are living
Now living as one

I choose you forever
My best love, my friend
I choose you forever
My best love, my friend

Copyright © 1983 Mary-Elizabeth Smith

Called

Unknown, really, which words,
soft, insistent,
were first whispered to the heart.
No matter, either,
that they were repeated,
in frequent quiet.
Little known of them
but that they formed a question
that was asked,
was always asking,
patient, patient,
waiting.
A call,
waiting
to be recognized,
waiting
for an answer.
Having asked so many others,
bearing fullness of Hope that
this answer will be the Yes,
the Yes that requires
Selflessness, Labor,
Dedication, Love,
Patience,
like its own.

What matters, what is known
is that Yes
was freely given.
Translated here by years
of faithful,
loving,
service
to the music...
...and to the Muse
Who, though in heaven,
comes down to earth again
to dwell in hearts
each time text and sound,
joined by Grace,
becomes complete
and lives within us.

written in honor of the 25 anniversary of Walden Moore as Choirmaster at Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven, CT

I'll be there song 1978

chorus
Wake me from my slumber's bliss
Wake me with love's tender kiss
I'll be there, I'll be there
Wake me with the new sunrise
With the passion of your eyes
I'll be there, I'll be there

We filled the night, 'til it would fill no more
Shamed the stars, outshone them all
We poured ourselves into one another souls
And made the world just one room small

chorus

I've had enough of wakin' up to find
That love had fled, had lost it's charms
To realize that love had never been
But just a game in strangers arms

chorus

I know that I no longer need to search
I've found my life and love in you
No longer need to dread the morning sun
I know that you have found me too

chorus (change)
Wake you from your slumbers bliss
Wake you with love's tender kiss
I'll be there, I'll be there
Wake you with the new sunrise
With the passion of my eyes
I'll be there, I'll be there,
I'm still here

(Fall 1978 used as original music for Albertus Magnus College production of Spoon River Anthology)

Copyright © 1978 Mary-Elizabeth Smith

You are so beautiful Song for Jim 5/1975

The day is wearisome, but the night is sure to come
And earth can lay her burdens down
And I am much like she, the evening comforts me
I too can put my cares away

Chorus
You are so beautiful
Your love's like evenin' time to me
I thank you now for entering my life
And coloring my days

The gifts God gives are sweet
To make my life complete
And you dear friend are foremost of that kind
And I can't help but be, richer by your love for me
And thankful for your giving me myself

Chorus

Our days will surely pass
Our life here cannot last
And someday we will be called home
But until that time, these words I sing and rhyme
Will testify to all you mean to me

Chorus

Copyright © 1975 Mary-Elizabeth Smith

Take my Sword (song)

Take my sword and make a ploughshare
For I'm wearied of war
Take my boots and point them homeward
For I care to march no more

For I've held too many dying
Seen too many wounds that will not heal
Too many nights heard grown men weeping
Too many times I could not feel

Take my sword...

All the fathers and the mothers
And the children who must mourn
And the broken hearted lovers
Who must learn to love alone

Take my sword...

We are all soldiers on this field
And if you asked, again we would go
But please try to find the reason
Let this hell be war's last show

Take my sword...

Copyright © 2008 Mary-Elizabeth Bean

I Am Undone by Love (song)

I am undone by Love
So great, so wide
That shook my heart
'til it fell free
Despite my fear and pride
I am undone by Love
And thus undone
I stand before
Heaven's ever open door

I am undone by Hope
So clear, so bright
In darkest hours
A taste of dawn
To feed me through the night
I am undone by Hope
And thus undone
I stand before
Heaven's ever open door

I am undone by Grace
So free, so fair
That all my days
Spent here on earth
Are brushed by Heaven's air
I am undone by Grace
And thus undone
I stand before
Heaven's ever open door

I am undone by Peace
So soft, so sure
Which bids me end
My restless walk
My soul in God secure
I am undone by Peace
And thus undone
I stand before
Heaven's ever open door

Copyright © 2008 Mary-Elizabeth Bean