Breezes Blow and Eagles Fly

“Breezes Blow and Eagles Fly,” the second in Abel’s four-part cycle Rainbow Songs, is a look at a romantic relationship nurtured in nature’s bosom long ago. The lovers – “too strong for each other” – drift gently apart and begin their separate “walkabouts,” with neither rancor nor the agonies of sudden parting. But it eventually turns out that mutual affection and respect have endured across the years. The music offers contrasts that chart “the maze of a lifetime,” ending on a note of profound tenderness.

Date: 2012Composer: Mark AbelText: Mark AbelSong Collection: Rainbow Songs

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BREEZES BLOW AND EAGLES FLY

Breezes blow and eagles fly through the fork in the river.
Still this place survives the onslaught of time
and men who will never learn to leave well enough alone.

You showed me this sacred space when spring gave way to summer.
Far off the back roads we shared a paradise of love.
Our soaring hopes built on lives untested,
many paths were beckoning, with fingers of sand.
But our tools were primitive,
like cavemen trying to strike a flint.

We didn’t know what we were doing.
Grappling with our shadow demons —
ones that we never knew we had —
then becoming something we feared.

We were too strong for each other,
destined to drift apart.
So began our walkabouts through the maze of a lifetime.
Fond farewells and vows to stay in the circle.
Like so many things, corruptible and impermanent.

Now here you are again.
True was your arrow that pierced my heart so long ago.
Lodged between the bones of memory, it never decayed.
You are fine; you always were – and so simply human.
Let’s stay awhile and watch God’s majestic light,
where breezes blow and eagles fly.

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