CD: Song One Lyrics - "One Deer, One Dove"

CD "Songs for the Wind" available soon. Song samples at http://www.richardschooping.com. I am inspired to share the lyrics,
blog by blog. This is song one of 12.






What is this song about? Well first, how do I write music? When I create, the closest semantic I can use is that the process is multidimensional. As I write songs I seem to become the space of that song. I can say this is similar to painting; but holographic, with sounds, colors, shapes, words, topics, people, etc. Cal says that I continually talk with "myself" when I am creating music, but I am not aware of this.

It is so interesting that while I am writing songs I am more than just me sitting playing a keyboard and programming instruments. I am every instrument and every musician, and each has their own personality and style. It is hard to explain, though I am sure many experience writing music this way. When I am for instance writing, within my "space" or head (not really visual) the scene IS, the song is. If I am writing a cello line I am somehow working directly with a cellist (though I am also that cellist), and "we" are in an environment (a studio, or on a stage) and working together. This is the case with every song. I am either working "with" the musicians directly or the song is a scene playing out in my head; like I am watching it happen and trying to keep up by taking (writing) notes like a reporter. Yes, it feels I am just observing and documenting the notes and colors as fast as I able because when I am deep in one song I still hear other songs "waiting" to "come in from some dimensional space within my head. And as I am writing choir members are coming and going, someone brings in taco bell, feedback screeches; I mean it is a full-on scene.

Another thing is that each phrase or melody also has a "world" within or of it. How do I explain this (though it is irrelevant but fun to attempt) so that one will know what I mean? Let us say I am writing the intro bars to a verse and it is comprised of piano, percussion, and violins. Well, as I am in that space of "creating" I may be flying (about 10' feet from the ground) above a rocky wave-lapped shoreline through the eye of a bird. Or, I am with the three musicians on an old rickety wooden stage in an opera house (crowd and all), or we are wind-caressed playing at a fog-engulfed edge of a cliff, etc. Every melody, phrase, or rest is like this. Each has an associated "thing" with it. There are worlds associated with each song like a movie. That was interesting to put into words.

So, concerning "One Deer, One Dove" I do not remember the movie or the exact process, but as you listen to the words you can imagine the scenes playing out and being woven. This song has a "personal" and experiential arc with a Universal theme. This song explains my experience of "feeling" more of myself and of being more than I had been. The personal arc of story is that there is a presence that becomes known when we "expand" that is more than a feeling, it is US. "Raining down through my soul..." is as clear as I can express it in this song. I am pointing to this presence that we are with the imagery. The second Universal theme is that we do not have to be ineffectual to be spiritual. We are the grace of the dove and the power, alertness, and agility of the deer. So many now are "thinking" spiritual, and not being whole. Wholeness contains All, and this includes the qualities of surrender and knowing.




I close my eyes, and I drift into silence
Through the doorway of the heart on an ocean of love

And there we are giving comfort and solace

Raining down through my soul unlike ever before

I had been suffering, wandering for so long (for so long)
Fearful of everything until we washed me in our song


We are one heart, we are one love (one love, one love)
We are one race, we are one joy (one joy, one joy)
We are one deer, we are one dove (one dove, a beautiful dove)
We are one world, we are one voice


And now I'm here experiencing glory
Celebrating these senses born of flesh as human
And still I grow amazed at how loving GOD is
I'm humbled by this gift of life, our divinity, our plan


I had been struggling, trying to fit into this place (trying to fit into this space)
Loosing the battle with my disease until we held me in our embrace

Chorus

Let us show kindness, be giving, and meek
But being holy isn't ineffectual or weak

We are the mightiest power and we are so much more
Let us not think about how to be spiritual and then we soar

And through the unity of the dear and the dove
We become a living symbol of GOD's love

We are one now
We are one now
We are one heart, one love

We are here Now