My Prayer song in progress

Every generation
pours it's best upon the fires
that are started by it's greed
pours it's best upon the fires
that are started by some need
And if I had Heaven's ear
this would be my sacred prayer
That we learn to say no
that we learn to say yes
that we learn the words that stop the flames
that swallow up our best
And if Heaven cannot hear
then it falls to us to make it clear
we must learn to say no
we must learn to say yes
we must learn the words that stop the flames
that rob us of our best
?



Copyright © 2008 Mary-Elizabeth Bean

Simple wishes song in progress

Simple wishes have I
Simple wishes three:
I wish you more
I wish you better
I wish you peace

More love than you can imagine
A better world with every new day
And that which we are all seeking
Peace at the end of our way

Simple…

More joys in life than sorrows
A better place for your children to grow
Where war is banished forever
And peace is all you know

Simple…

Copyright © 2008 Mary-Elizabeth Bean

Weaving song in progress

Another weekend argument
The anger takes her through the day
And settles in that empty space
Where all the fights just seem to stray
And she wonders as she sometimes does
Why they always choose to stay

Entangled in each other’s lives
Unraveling a little here
Entangled in each other’s hearts
Unraveling a little there
Just tie the dangling threads together
Don’t let everafter tear

She fights the urge to take to flight
And he the one to run to ground
Both gambling that a little time
Will right their lives, bring them around
To where they join, again discover
Love apart is love not found

Entangled in each other’s lives
Unraveling a little here
Entangled in each other’s hearts
Unraveling a little there
Just tie the dangling threads together
Don’t let everafter tear

In between the ordinary
And underneath the everyday
A little glimpse of who they are
Enough to make them feel okay
Feel headed in the same direction
Love admitting feet of clay

Entangled in each other’s lives
Unraveling a little here
Entangled in each other’s hearts
Unraveling a little there
Just tie the dangling threads together
Don’t let everafter tear

Copyright © 2008 Mary-Elizabeth Bean

Like a balm in Gilead (for my Dad)(Song)

Like a balm in Gilead
is the grace of a goodbye
How I wish I could fold back the years
Speak the truths between my tears
and feel inside a balm of Gilead,
the grace of our goodbye

Those who knew that you were leaving could not bear to tell me so
and the others, unbelieving, never thought that you would go
So in ignorance I dreamt the night away
And in the silver'd dawn you softly slipped away

Like a balm...

At times I find myself pretending, that you're here to say farewell
Say the words that are heart-mending, words that only you could tell
And I try to find my own to make it clear
Just what you mean to me and how I'll always care

Like a balm...

If the stars had worked together, if the fates had so ordained
Then you might have stayed forever, what we were would have remained
But I'm left to find my way to heaven's door
with hope that I will meet you on that further shore

Like a balm...

Copyright © 2008 Mary-Elizabeth Bean

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