Lilacs in Season

While looking through a folder for some songs I wanted to practice, I came across an old letter from an editor at a now defunct magazine. The letter was torn and stained.

Then I turned it over.

On the back was scribbled an early draft of "Lilacs in Season," a song I'd written some 40 years ago and thought I had lost. I could recall the chorus, but never could remember the lyrics - and here they were.

I'd written the song as an audition piece. Some folks were trying to organize a small festival - the "Pocket Park Festival" - and were seeking performers. I had some songs I could do, but thought something more in keeping with the lilacs that filled the park would be good, so I wrote the song. 

I performed it as part of my audition, and I was accepted as one of the performers. I then played it again at the festival, along with some other originals and some covers. Festival goers were asked to vote for whom they thought the best musical act, and I later learned I won. 

The win was nice, but even more significant was that my parents had driven up to see me perform. It was the only time they ever saw me perform in public.

I sang the song only twice - at the audition, and at the festival.

Here are they lyrics I rediscovered today:

Lilacs in Season

Up in the hills, air full of flowers

Green life erupting, birth from the dead lands

Children are dancing, bright in the sunlight

Colors in circles, games hand-in-hand.

 

Chorus –

 

Lilacs in season, no other reason

for singing this song.

Beauty surrounds me like the love that you give me,

keeping me strong.

 

Summer’s the living, autumn’s the harvest,

Winter’s the pause, spring is the promise.

I have been waiting, too long for some good news,

But time fades away, in May morning sunrise.

 

Chorus

 

Radios playing, a band in the distance,

Birds sing along, above in the trees.

Worshipers gather to honor the sun

Each tree’s a maypole, with lovers beneath.

 

Chorus

 

Walking together, hand clasped in hand

We come here to share in, this gift of creation.

Praise for the beauty, praise for all life,

That gives us a reason, for this celebration.

 

Chrous

Pax et bonum