A Birthday

Listen to:

A Birthday (:55)

by Christina Rossetti 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

In celebration of the wedding of my dear friends, Casey Rich and Jillian Smith

My heart is like a singing bird 

                  Whose nest is in a water'd shoot; 

My heart is like an apple-tree 

                  Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit; 

My heart is like a rainbow shell 

                  That paddles in a halcyon sea; 

My heart is gladder than all these 

                  Because my love is come to me. 

Raise me a dais of silk and down; 

                  Hang it with vair and purple dyes; 

Carve it in doves and pomegranates, 

                  And peacocks with a hundred eyes; 

Work it in gold and silver grapes, 

                  In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys; 

Because the birthday of my life 

                  Is come, my love is come to me. 

Come Lovely and Soothing Death

Listen to:

 Come Lovely and Soothing Death (1:26)

by Walt Whitman 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

from "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d"

from Leaves of Grass

by Walt Whitman

Come lovely and soothing death,

Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,

In the day, in the night, to all, to each,

Sooner or later delicate death.

Prais'd be the fathomless universe,

For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious,

And for love, sweet love--but praise! praise! praise!

For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding death.

Dark mother always gliding near with soft feet,

Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome?

Then I chant it for thee, I glorify thee above all,

I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come unfalteringly.

Approach strong deliveress,

When it is so, when thou hast taken them I joyously sing the dead,

Lost in the loving floating ocean of thee,

Laved in the flood of thy bliss O death.

June

Listen to:

June (:41)

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Mine is the Month of Roses; yes, and mine
The Month of Marriages! All pleasant sights
And scents, the fragrance of the blossoming vine,
The foliage of the valleys and the heights.
Mine are the longest days, the loveliest nights;
The mower's scythe makes music to my ear;
I am the mother of all dear delights;
I am the fairest daughter of the year.


Photo from Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti
http://millefiorifavoriti.blogspot.com/2010/06/pink-roses-in-cranford-rose-garden.html