Feb
14
2011
The Land of Breath
Children’s Song
Text and Music: Sora Jederan-Shpack February 2010
I dreamed I saw a white bird fly
Into my room last night
The white bird said
Climb on my back
And off we’ll soar in flight
On her I lept
And off we went
Across the great blue sky
That soft white bird and I
And where we went
The air was clean
And pure as crystal dew
I breathed that air
So deeply in, as though ‘twas all I knew
Here in this space,
My steady breath
Did in and out it go
And as I watched a quiet sense
That I am safe did grow
And by and by
The white bird said
There’s no more time to roam,
With silent wings upon the wind
Our breathing brought us home.
As I awoke, I looked and saw
A white bird rushing by
Reminding me of the Land of Breath,
Across the great blue sky
A white tern (Gygis alba) takes flight on Midway Island in the South Pacific. The birds nest on coral islands throughout the tropics, and they lay just one egg at a time, typically balanced precariously on a tree branch or rock. WHOI population biologist Hal Caswell has been studying the population dynamics and geographic distribution of several types of birds, with a particular interest in how those species are being affected by climate change. (Photo by Hal Caswell, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) All images are copyright ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=10897&i=2462&x=245