Obsession

The sun has gone from the shining skies,
The dandelions have closed their eyes,
The stars are lighting their lamps to see
If babes and squirrels and birds and bees
Are sound asleep as they should be.
(Anonymous)

Every few years I buy an album of music which I cannot stop listening to. I listen in the car then, when I get home, I bring the CD into the house so I can listen some more. My current obsession is Natalie Merchant's most recent album -- a 2-CD set called Leave Your Sleep.

In the liner notes, Merchant relates that her inspiration for the album was sharing poetry with her own child. The songs are all poems written for children & set to music in a variety of styles. There are no less than 4 musical arrangements which include accordion, which, as far as I'm concerned, is nothing less than fabulous. The CD set comes with an elegant little book which includes all the poetry/lyrics and fascinating biographical information on each of the poets featured. The poems are dreamy and some of the music to which they are set is even dreamier.

I think my favorite is Equestrienne by Rachel Field:

See, they are clearing the sawdust course
For the girl in the pin on the milk-white horse.
Her spangles twinkle; his pale flanks shine,
Every hair of his tail is fine
And bright as a comet's; his mane blows free,
And she points a toe and bends a knee,
And while his hoofbeats fall like rain
Over and over and over again.
And nothing that moves on land and sea
Will seem so beautiful to me
As the girl in pink on the milk-white horse
Cantering over the sawdust course.