Recent Offerings

Miss Mia Rose – For Mia

Miss Mia Rose of chestnut hair
Of brightest eye, complexion fair
We gather here with joy this day
To bring you love, to bless your name
From this day forth as you explore
The fun of what life has in store
As you grow and spread your wings
We’ll watch with wonder, what life brings

Miss Mia Rose of flower name
Of loving heart, of kind refrain
May you be forever blessed
May angels hold you to their breast
May laughter be your life long friend
If sorrows come, may soon they end
May magic be with you always
Love, light and music fill your days

Miss Mia Rose we come this day
To bring you love, to bless your name

On the occasion of Mia’s Naming Ceremony, 2007.

© Kacey Patrick 2007

The Dream of Zedkat Nabu

Woodford Folk Festival 2012/13

“Zedkat Nabu dreamt that she was baking bread, and as she baked, water suddenly poured forth from her oven forming a great sea. As the sea rose, many and various animals tried to escape the growing deluge of water, crying out with their strange and exotic calls and cries. And on that sea, she came to see herself and her 3 sisters floating ……singing and floating ………..their voices joining those of the animals in a great chorus ……..a chorus of distress, but also of hope ……hope for survival. A chorus so haunting and beautiful that even the deluge of water paused to listen ………”

The Dream of Zedkat Nabu is a Universal story, both ancient and contemporary. It is a story of a world in peril, of species doomed for extinction.We join her dream at the moment of “The Great Chorus” ………the moment when the Great Flood pauses to listen ……….and know this ……….we are also in that story, and it is no dream. For it is time to sing together to create a Great Chorus that will for us too, turn back the waters of impending extinction.

The Dream of Zedkat Nabu was the World Premiere of a new work devised by Linsey Pollak and performed by 4 wonderful singers – Kacey Patrick, Velvet Pesu, Jeunae Rogers and Nadia Sunde and 4 musicians triggering the calls of endangered animals by striking bamboo poles – Jessica Ainsworth, Fatima, Linsey Pollak and Zaia. Lighting Design by Andrew Meadows. Costume and Set Design by Velvet Pesu.

This specially commissioned new work was performed over 4 nights (28th, 29th, 30th & 31st) on the Pond, next to the the Village Green at the Woodford Folk Festival 2012/13. At the core of this Musical work are the sounds of the animals themselves. Evocative calls of endangered species that speak directly to us in a way that words cannot. It is a call to action. A call to save this planet from the impending crisis. This is The Dream of Zedkat Nabu.

Kacey Patrick in “The Dream of Zedkat Nabu”

Image by Jeff License – Tigermonkey Productions.

More Images of “The Dream of Zedkat Nabu” by Steve Swayne.

What Would You Have Me Do / ‘Milonga’

I dance as though I’m dreaming
Our hearts are so revealing
My lips they long to speak it
The longing lies beneath it
Embarrassed eyes down-turning
So little said in yearning
As hearts and heads keep falling
Love seems to find its calling
To ask is this completeness
A feeling from the nearness
No more a love forsaken
A heart has been awakened
We seek and end to longing
What would you have me do
Love me so deep
‘Til light returns once more

Hearts lost in situation
Embraces long mistaken
Look to your eyes I find it
The knowing lies behind it
To cherish all remaining
A heart is not distaining
Flight to a place uncertain
But shame has drawn the curtain
True words are left unspoken
So many lying broken
While tears they keep on falling
Lives have divergent calling
We seek an end to longing
What would you have me do
Love me so deep
‘Til light returns once more

In time we cry to remember
The dream our hearts thought forever
The dream of passion together
As love finds time rewinding once again
Yearnings no longer forgotten
Our arms they reach for one embrace
What would you feel in a moment
If love was caught out of place

If hearts were lost and never found
What would you feel if you were near
What would you find, what would you fear
A heart still beats when love is broken and undone
‘Til light returns once more

I dance as though I’m drifting
I wonder what you’re thinking
A heart it seeks reason
When love discovers treason
Our bodies keep implying
The fear we keep denying
That love has been forsaken
No more to be awakened
New love is so revealing
In time it comes concealing
What could we find tomorrow
The joy, or pain and sorrow
When hearts they seek belonging
What would you have me do

What would you feel if you were near
What would you find, what would you fear
A heart still beats when love is broken and undone
‘Til light returns once more

Text written to ‘Milonga’ by Jorge Cardoso, as performed by The Saruzu Quartet.

PLAY The Saruzu Quartet: ‘Milonga’

Tears of Joy

A storms draws near
It bears me down
Upon a field of green release me
And lightness comes
But answer this
How a heart can bear to hear a child’s prayer

This child of light
That bears the name
From a time of fear release me
And tears of joy will fall
So take my hand
And we’ll walk together towards the light to find
A new day has come

And tears will fall when it comes

What may befall, a ravaged land
A time may come, it’s close at hand
All life will cease to be the same
For all we’ve done we’ll feel ashamed

A child to hold is to believe
To give us hope, help us to breathe
To choose to live, to choose to change
To choose to fight and mend our ways

A child of light has entered here before
To guide and to prepare for what’s in store
So take my hand
And we’ll walk together towards the light to find
A new day has come

To strive to seek and not to yield
To strive to satisfy the needs
Of one so young, yet so unfurled
To all that’s said and all that’s heard

If to believe is to make you strong
Embrace a child and we’ll all move on

For all that’s come to pass and all that lies bereft before
Will centre on this moment like never …

For, if to believe is to make you strong
Embrace a child and we’ll all move on
In our embrace they will be the change
And we’ll find what’s lost and we’ll rearrange

And tears of joy will fall when it comes …

Music © Aaron Hopper ‘Intense Spider’/Andrew Veivers ‘Noroeste’
Lyrics © Kacey Patrick ‘Tears of Joy’

This text began as lyrics to a work by The Saruzu Quartet – ‘Noroeste’.
It evolved into Tears of Joy and was performed for the first time by stringmansassy at the National Folk Festival (Canberra), Easter 2012.

A Pure Heart (A Maid’s Lament)

If one’s pure heart is tainted for a time
Can one’s pure heart remain to feel rewind
If I conceal all that I’ve done
Can my poor heart begin whence it begun

He was my love, adoring me
With purest heart, naive and free
But in my selfish heart I found
A place to lie and to be proud

To scorn another’s love so pure
To break a heart, leave it unsure
Of all the gifts it could receive
From one such heart, naive and free

But did I know where scorn would lead
I surely would have taken heed
And nurtured love so pure and true
The games I played, I came to rue

If one’s pure heart is tainted for a time
Can one’s pure heart remain to feel rewind
If I reveal all that I’ve done
Can my poor heart begin whence it begun

In search of high and richer life
I came to be another’s wife
And spurned a pure untainted love
For the life I had dreamed of

In doing so, I broke a heart
Which for it’s strength, shattered like glass
And never more was it to be
A heart so pure, naive and free

A ship, it bore him from the land
He took his love far from my hand
And left a message etched in stone
Of how one’s scorn could cut to bone

And when the waves, they bore him down
And in those depths, a pure love drowned
I had not had the chance to tell
Of how my heart, it loved him well

Sirens who call him to the deep
Know that my poor heart surely weeps
Release and send him home to me
And I shall love, naive and free

If one’s pure heart is tainted for a time
Can one’s pure heart remain to feel rewind
If I reveal my love to thee
Can my poor heart forever live….in memory of thee

The Sakura – For Taiji and Kayo

From this day a tree will grow
In a garden, where we’ll go
Each year to watch the blossoms bloom
And gather with our friends
And as this tree, it grows and spreads
It’s blossomed bowers overhead
We will look back on this day
To where it all began

We gather here with blessings
For the children of this garden
From this day, this tree and they
Will share this sacred ground
And we will watch with warmth and love
As these children grow
And evolve with all the magic, joys and sorrows
That abound

Taiji, Warrior of Peace
Child with great connection
To the natural world around you
We wish for evermore
That nature brings you nurture
That your journeys bring you all
The wonder and compassion
That life has in store

Kayo, Child of Fragrant World
Girls at life’s beginning
Whose light and conscious presence
Did radiate from the start
We wish for you a life of love
Adventure and of learning
Of peace and magic, joy and dreams
And all that sets apart

From this day a tree will grow
In a garden, where we’ll go
Each year to watch the blossoms bloom
Remembering this day
And as this tree, it grows and spreads
It’s boughs and blossoms overhead
The children of this garden
Will sing and dance and play

At Journey’s End

Arriving at our journey’s end
We sought solace in a friend
A friend to share our secrets with
To share regrets and sorrows
To share the joy and wisdom learned
All that we’d seen, all that we’d heard
But no such friend was waiting there
The day after tomorrow

Before the journey had begun
We thought there was at least someone
A single individual to stand the test of time
But one forgets and one is blind
When one is harsh, cruel and unkind
That friends need to be nurtured
Even if they are of thine

We’re sure the bitterness of heart
It was not present at the start
But on reflection, maybe it was there
Since time began
And through the years it ebbed and flowed
And like a sickness, it did grow
Until all hope of recompense
Was wilted in distain

And friends that stayed all drifted off
One by one, then all at once
Some held on, until the hurt
They found too much to bare
And did we notice, No!, not then
We thought we were a God to men
Too arrogant, conceited
And too cold of heart to care

So now, at journey’s end we see
All that was life, all memories
Are no more that a little blip
In life’s eternal roll
For if one has no friends to share
The joys and sorrows, loves and cares
The only one to confide in
Is one who’ll save your soul

You Would Be Mine

Another place another time
I know you would be mine
Another space were we inclined
I know you would be mine
If to embrace to feel sublime
I know you would be mine
If to erase and leave behind
I know you would be mine this time

Like a tide against the shore
I retreat still wanting more
Where dampness soaks the sand, a desire it expands
Along the ebb and flow of seas
Where the waves crash over me
Every time we came to pass I cannot breathe

Like an apple from a tree
Enticed by gravity
To be caught within a hand and surrender to the man
Who could devour with a breath
All resistance I have left
Every time we come to pass I would be free

If there is more than one
For each and everyone
You would be one of those ones for me
If I could step outside
My current life
Surrender to igniting strife
I’d cross divides to realise
And actualise desires inside

Like a moth drawn through the night
Singe-ing wings in candlelight
I flutter in the wake of the ripples that you make
And treat with nonchalance and fear
The sense of you so near
Every time we come to pass I cannot breathe

Like the movement of a moon
With an orbit gone too soon
I revolve around and wait, in an state, as I anticipate
What madness it would be
If my will abandoned me
Every time we come to pass I would be free

Another place another time
I know you would be mine
Another space were we inclined
I know you would be mine
If to embrace to feel sublime
I know you would be mine
Another place we’d be entwined
And I know you would be mine

Inspired by ‘Invocation’ from Beyond Words – Bobby McFerrin.

Invocation

The Brolgas

Against the backdrop of an azure sky
A brolga pair orbits the baked earth
Like creatures from another time
Prehistoric in their form
Long and slender they rise
Vast wings in undulating motion

Such grace
As if buoyed by zephyrs

They circle to join others
Pairs in sublime union
To bless the skies
To bless the earth
To await dusk
When their call will resound through human hearts

Wollumbin / ‘Tyalgum Dawn’

In early morning light
In solitude it stands
A sentinel is proud
Above a subdued land

The catcher of the clouds
Swathed in morning mist
Unfurling from the landscape
Like spiders’ filament

Silhouettes of trees
Sit smudged against the scene
Their tendrils catch the creeping light
Then turn from grey to green

Breezes swirl, caressing
Vast undulating fields
Which ripple from the forest
That clothe this sentinel

As dawn’s first ray alights
Atop the mountain’s brow
Then refracts down through the forest
To hushed and sleepy towns

———

This is an undulating land
Formed in eons past
Its ancient rim, a remnant
Of molten rock and blast

And high above this valley
In forests thick and wise
Trees remain from ancient times
To stand and to remind

And there amongst the undergrowth
A chorus deep within
Resounds the call of early morn
Which echos down the stream

The first peoples, they know
The sacred in this place
The those who came thereafter
The heart within this space

If Wollumbin is the heart
The caldera is the arms
Embracing all who dwell here
In intoxicating charm

As Morning mists unfurl
And reveal a bounty grand
A sentinel stands proud
Above an ancient land

Adapted and used as text for ‘Tyalgum Dawn : for soprano and string orchestra’, composed by Ann-Carr Boyd. Commissioned for the 20th Anniversary of the Tyalgum Festival of Classical Music, 2011. Performed by the Camerata of St John’s and Kacey Patrick (soprano).

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