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Dancing Diamonds (9') 2000
soprano singer and piano
Sample Score - (opens in new window)
Dancing Diamonds
by Jim Green
The chorus goes
THERE AIN'T NO BULL FROGS
ON THE LILY PADS
because it's too far north
and is sung chanted
droned perhaps
maybe like Leonard Cohen
It begins that way
but it doesn't stay there long
The melody grows gloriously
describing a delightful dream
about a dancing yellow magi
born to an alto recorder
flowing golden down granite
blending into the lake water
joining a universe of jewels
until warm yellow
and dancing diamonds
become forever inseparable
become a celebration of loons
The expanse of course
must be limitless
if not to your eyes
at least to your inner mind
leading anywhere
leading everywhere
and beyond
As it can go anywhere
so it can begin
coming into focus
staring at a spent campfire
in post dawn morning light
a cold fire site
in a soft lit clearing
on left over sand
Nobody in this picture
camera sweeps slowly
silently across the scene
the only sound
tentative flickerings
young birch leaves
in the breath of morning
Camera zooms focuses
on twinkling green
delicate dew drops
dangling from stiff blades
of dawn still grass
Lens loses focus on green
opens wide to overbright
overpowering light
of dancing diamonds
millions of diamonds dancing
winking from every wave top
waving from the wing tips
awakening Fiddler's Lake
Like a tiara you once wore
to the May Queen Dance
way back in grade ten
and later lost
like a contact lens
in the back seat
and suddenly bingo
there it is back again
the mystery renewed
for a fleeting second
after all this time
Into this drifting reverie
over all the years to now
enters an overwhelming mellow
arriving in a lemon yellow flow
from a wooden alto recorder
filling the sky of morning
wafting down from the house
pouring molten over rock
through scattered spruce
fingering the grey willows
infiltrating shore grasses
mingling with the crown jewels
of the shimmering tiara
Suddenly splashing up
to the surface of this dream
catapulting to the screen
up from the nether world
a family of loons
male female two chicks
bursting into blue
an explosion of loons
in a field of diamonds
Loon family in summer
movements in vivid black
and dazzling white
A fluid ballet
in a flowing universe
amid a dance of diamonds
spraying to the surface
ebony beaks flicking drops
ruby eyes flashing
droplets dripping
down arced necks
bubbles streaming
from carved backs
all in a split second
Yet not really
it happened so slowly
so long drawn out
the frozen geese in the plaza
of the Toronto Eaton's Centre
would have had time to land
in the Queen Street fountain
The time it took to happen
as I lay belly down
on the warm 2 X 6 dock
eight inches over the water
splashed my sleepy face
raised wet streaming head
peered through waterfall eyes
was maybe four of five wingbeats
of a morning cruising raven
A revelation
those seconds
belly flat
head raised
suspended
as morning mellow
drifted down
mingling with
the loon families'
warm welcome
to the may Queen Ball
as the band played
dancing diamonds