Wild Swans

I wrote these songs in homage to the German art song tradition. The poems are Romantic in style and intent. Like so many German Lieder, they celebrate the beauty of nature; fields of California poppies and lupin; foggy redwood forests; and the many moods of the Pacific Ocean.

— Nancy Bachmann

I. Sonnet: The Serenade

Your silver song threads softly through my dreams,
Weaving silken visions of delight:
I soar o’er crimson mountains crowned in white,
Then glide through purple skies on moonlit beams.
My fantasy becomes a morning bold,
That sparkles bright as every waking bird
Pipes crystal trills, competing to be heard
‘Cross fields of lupin blue and poppy gold.
Then I awake and hear your music still
Entwining gentle tendrils ’round my heart,
“Come to me,” you plead, “let us depart!
I’ll never cease my song to you until
Together, hand in hand, we wander through
Fields of poppy gold and lupin blue.”

II. Autumn Equinox

There’s an ache in the air of September
That longs for the Winter’s rest,
It’s difficult now to remember
The breath of Spring we thought we loved best.
The tops of the Redwoods are spangled
By Autumn’s ethereal glow,
While mosses and ferns, entangled,
Guard the spent creek’s meager flow.
Here Oak and Aspen leaves shimmer
Fueled by an inner source,
Exhaling the last of the Summer
Sun’s exuberant force.

Now Fog threads its way through the branches,
The Redwoods sigh with relief,
Marking the mist as the cloud advances,
Soft but relentless daylight thief.

A blanket of silence descends
From arbor to forest floor,
No tree creak, no bird song attends
The damp hush that sinks to the core

Of this, the year’s sweet balance point,
Between light and dark, watching and sleep,
I lift my face so the Fog may anoint
The ache that has settled so deep.

Now my heart yearns for you
And holds you dear.
My heart holds you, and yearns.

III. The Pacific is Playful Today

The Pacific is playful today,
The breakers, akimbo,
Come tumbling on to the beach.
Their crashing and teasing
Make gleeful seagulls screech!

The Pacific is playful today,
Recalling that May
When we romped and we kissed and we planned.
Now the sea holds the secrets
Of love notes we wrote in the sand.
The Pacific is playful today,
Surging and swelling,
It’s bringing you back to me now.
I see your bright sail,
The clean cut of that dancing bow!
With our toes in the sand,
We’ll join heart and hand,
As breakers roll into the bay.
Then with newlywed glee
We’ll take to the sea,
And together, sail away!
Ba da ba da da da…