Environmental Songbook

Mountain Bluebird

Music and lyrics by Linda Boyle

©2017 Linda Boyle

On "The Forest Island: Songs of the Black Hills".  Coming fall, 2018: two booklets of companion stories, content-area lessons (grades 2-8), color illustrations, graphic organizers and B&W coloring pages of the flora and fauna, water resources and geology mentioned in the album's songs.

The shimmering blue color of the Mountain Bluebird may seem like magic because their feathers have no pigment! How are they so blue? Blue is the way in which the eye perceives the reflection of light off of their specially-shaped feathers! This song relates the magical majesty of these birds that are usually only seen in the Black Hills and western South Dakota during summer months and west of the Rockies and Canada elsewhere.

Lyrics

                   Mountain Bluebird    c2016  Linda Boyle         

  Rise up, mountain bluebird from the meadow grass so green.

   Let the sunlight dance on your blue wings like a dream.

 

The magical blue of your wings

    Makes me believe in impossible things

  Makes me happy and want to sing

   of the joy I feel to know that you are real!        

 

  Did you circle ‘round the globe?

    Or do you hide from the world’s woes?

 Tell me where you go at night.

    Do you hitch a ride on a moonbeam flight?    

 

   Mountain bluebird, where were you born?

   Was it from an egg in a nest up on high?

  Or in a young child’s dream, of your return from the ocean deep?  

  

 Tell me the story of the August Red Moon -

   You flew across at midnight, chirping a tune.

  Are there other feathered travelers to this celestial site, or is it just you?

  Did your heart collide   —    with the Northern Lights?

   And the Aurora Borealis dusted you   —  with its iridescent hue.

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All songs posted in the CMN Song Library are protected by copyright and are provided by the generosity of the owner/artist. You may perform songs you find here in classrooms and camps without the copyright owner’s permission. For all other performances, you must first obtain a performance license through BMI, SESAC or ASCAP or obtain the copyright owner’s express prior written permission.