A bird came down the walk (2011)

Written for and performed by Musae (www.musae.org), a women's vocal ensemble, at the Blue Skies, Bluegrass, and Beyond concert in Berkeley and San Francisco.

lyrics

Poem by Emily Dickinson

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,--
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, plashless, as they swim.

credits

released May 20, 2011
Musae is:

Ryan Brandau (artistic director)
Sabrina Adler
Amy Cohen Fickenscher
Kirstin Cummings
Amy Hayes
Michela Macfarlane
Lauren Hoover-Gordon
Katie Innes
Joyce Lin-Conrad
Valerie Moy
Colleen O'Hara
Abby Ramsden
Katherine Robinson

Recording done by:
Bob Shumaker

www.musae.org