Kay Kinard Maves (1938-1999) was a very talented lady (musician/writer/photographer etc.) and my wife for 17 years. During that time she collaborated with me on several compositions, providing thoughtful, delightful texts and much encouragement and advice. Some of these texts are shown below. Most are available as musical works here on line, and are here linked to these works. (Go to the texts and click for web pages describing these works.) Kay also did the text for our Christmas Cantata The Legend of Befana, a 20 minute work for grade school performers published by DAPrint.

The Owl and the Nightingale

Gargoyle

The Unicorn

Rows are strange

Sir Isaac Newton

The Siren

Three Songs of Affirmation

The Four Seasons of Love

Woman's Songs

Published work By CF Peters, Ny, The Bestiary

The Owl and the Nightingale

 

Down in a grove so I've heard tell,

Down in a dingly, deep dark dell,

There lived an owl,

And a nightingale! nightingale! and a nightingale!

 

There was no lost love

Between those two,

And day and night you could hear them fuss,

 

Like this:

Chip, chirp,

Whoo, hoo! Whoo, hoo!

 

Chip, chirp, how they fuss!

Whoo, hoo! Whoo, hoo!

 

Chip, chirp, how they fuss!

Whoo, hoo! Whoo, hoo!

 

Said the nightingale,

"Old Owl, how sad and sour are you,

With your ugly face,

You sit all night long,

And sing that awful scratchy song.

Of Who, hoo! Whoo hoo!"

 

Chip, chirp, how they fuss!

Whoo, hoo! Whoo, hoo!

 

Chip, chirp, how they fuss!

Whoo, hoo! Whoo, hoo!

 

This made the owl so mad

He ruffled up and cried,

"You silly bit of fluff,

At least I'm dignified,

You've a silly song, and a stupid face,

And feathers in your foolish head

As well as on the outside."

 

Chip, chirp, how they fuss!

Whoo, hoo! Whoo, hoo!

 

And so they argued back and forth,

And neither would agree,

And neither would agree,

And, as I've heard, they're at it yet,

High in some dingly tree:

 

Chip, chirp, how they fuss!

Whoo, hoo! Whoo, hoo!

 

Chip, chirp, how they fuss!

Whoo, hoo! Whoo, hoo!

 

Chip, chirp,

Whoo, hoo! Whoo, hoo!

 

Gargoyle

 

Gargoyles perch by day on the rooftops,

With frozen stone smiles,

and long, lolling mouths ajar,

no movement,

no sound,

'til dark,

and then

 

GARGOYLE!

 

Zipping, slipping

thru the night air!

Laughing, leering

tearing thru the night air!

Laughing leering

tearing thru the quiet air!

Scaring cats,

chasing bats

'til dawn.

 

When each one flits to his roof top,

and stares with his cold stone eyes

at the busy streets

thru the long bright day.

And knows that night will come

When

 

GARGOYLE!

Zipping, slipping

thru the night air!

Laughing, leering

tearing thru the night air!

Laughing leering

tearing thru the quiet air!

Scaring cats,

chasing bats

 

Reeling, spinning,

shrieking, grinning,

 

GARGOYLE!

 

 

 

Rows are strange

 

Rows,are

strange.

Quite odd.

No scale?

NO!

What?

A ROW!

A scale? NO!

Odd...

Quite strange

are rows.

 

Rows are

strange.

Quite odd.

No scale!

A ROW?

A what?

No scale?

NO!

Odd...

Quite strange

are rows.

 

 

The Unicorn

 

Most unique

Is the Unicorn;

A horse of sorts,

he has one horn--

 

Right in the middle of his forehead!

 

Poor Unicorn, Alas!

One horn he has; Alas!

It has no use, no use whatever.

It will not do to scratch,

to dig, so swat a fly;

It sits there to disguise,

I guess,

his left eye from his other.

 

Eye?

Yes!

 

If you were he,

you'd find that horn quite irritating.

To know one eye, was hid from the other

would be infuriating!

 

Eye?

Of course!

 

Most unique

Is the Unicorn;

A horse of sorts,

he has one horn--

 

Right in the middle of his forehead!

 

 

The Siren

 

Fish, flesh, or fowl?

The Siren isn't sure

she's either

or all three

or only one!

 

She sings,

A song

Alone,

that no one knows,

high on the rocks above the sea.

 

Her head is very like a girl's

with long and lovely heir,

But she has as well a fishes tail

And wings upon her feet

to speed her through the upper air.

 

The Siren sits alone

and sings and sings and sings

for no one.

 

Three Songs of Affirmation

 

  

 

Here

green-blue

sky, earth,

Rolls

away

from me

Arcs

above, below,

matchless

Symmetry.

 

II

 

Understand

this:

 

Ordered, not

Immoral, Right

or Wrong,

 

Death for Life

 

is

 

Must.

 

 

III

 

I accept,

 

I will bathe

in the

waters

as they flow,

 

The darkness

ended,

I will rise

I will cleave

to the stars -

And their shining

and

my shining

now

are one.  

 

The Four Seasons of Love

I

 

Lovely

Like the

leaves beside your hair,

Like the grasses in the marsh you love,

Your face, as natural and serene,

emerges from the landscape,

De-lights my afternoon.

 

II

 

The gingko tree out-side

is touched with gold.

All the light

of winter afternoons

is gathered in this place

And in your face

I know regret

and wondering.

 

III

 

Spring comes,

as it must

I would wish it otherwise

I would wish the dark-ness to re-main

and spread

a-cross the light.

No-thing grows with-in

With-out the earth is catching life in both her hands

Oh Spring,

Un-fair to winter

in my life.

 

IV

 

Yet

if I close my eyes,

throw back the light,

If I spin on pages

fragile as the images I bear,

I bear this long winter

This long winter with its freight

of memory

and of barren night,

This long winter brings an end

and a beginning.

 

Sir Isaac Newton


Sir Isaac Newton,

A very wise man,

Said

What ever goes up

Must come down.

Just like this song.

Which otherwise might have been stuck there for ever!

Poor song.

 

 

 

 

Woman's Songs
I
Little Girl's Song

* little girl's voice, small, uncertain; not necessarily a faked voice,
but clear and ingenuous--not a mature singer's voice

*Life is being very small...

Oh, I know!
Life is sun and stars
and trees and grass
and snow and Mud!
Oh Mud -
Oh, warm and brown and smooth and squishy
on my toes, and -


** a mature singer's voice


**Oh!
Your dress, how dirty
Oh, your hair a tangle!
And your ribbon
Gone!
Haven't I raised you-
Haven't I told you
Oh
You'll never be a lady!


*Life is...
Life is being very small -
Life is being told to be a lady -
Life is games
and toys, and playing tag
and tic- tac- toe,
and hop scotch, jump rope, riddles
running in the rain and
beating up the bully down the block-


**Oh!
You what?
Fight like a boy!
Tear your dress!
Bloody your nose!
Didn't I tell you,
Didn't I warn you-
Ladies never fight!


*Life...
Life is...
Life is being very small-
Live is growing up to be a lady-
I don't think I want to be a lady.

II
Young Woman's Song
My hair is curled,
My dress arranged just so.
My smile and manner practiced and serene,
I wait.
Oh, I wait for someone.
He will make my life complete.
He will fill my days.
He will be
All I have not been,
All I will not be.
So I have practiced
So I have learned.
If I can only sketch out a pattern,
Someone will fill it.
Someone will bring it around to a close.
There will be he and I,
There will be children.
They will be
All he is
All I am not.


III
Old Woman's Song
"What have I learned of life?"
"I'll tell you what I've learned."
I've learned that spitting in-to the wind
is a serious matter,
and that things
laid down easy pick up hard.
I've learned that whisky and men should be tried--
not at all,
in moderation,
in excess
to find what suits;
And that discretion is the better part of valor,
But that indiscretion
is more fun.
And I've learned that love
is not a condition
but a habit,
It can be broken
or accepted,
for the pleasure
and the sorrow that it brings.
And that to live well
and love well
is all that really matters.
That's what I've learned!

 

The Legend of Befana


I

Jesus child, where were you born? Born in a manger. 
Straw for your pillow, cape for your cover;
Nobody knows when a baby cries Deep in a manger.
No one but shepherds bearing all gifts,
Heads bowed in wonder,
Come to the manger.
Nothing but stars,
Burning the night sky,
Blazing your glory,
Smile on the manger.
Out in the wide world, 
On-ly three wise men,
Knowing your coming,
Bearing rich treasure,
Search for your manger.
Out in the sad world, highest and lowest,
These heed your coming.
Sleep, Jesus child,
Sleep in your manger.  


II


Noel! Noel! Sing Noel!
Sing Noel and Hosana!
Sing Noel and Hosana!
This day of days
Let loose the silent bells,
Let peal the song
Across the earth,
Noel!
Noel, sing Hosanna!l
Let each man reach to other men,
Let hearts be bound as one, Noel!
Sing we now Noel! day of days
Let loose the silent bells,
Let peal the song
Across the earth,
Noel!
Noel, sing Hosanna!
Let each man reach to other men,
Let hearts be bound as one, Noel!
For Christ the King is born
to make strife end, 
to make war cease,
So sing we now
Noel!
Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Amen.
Amen.

 

 

Invocation for a Christmas Service

I
It begins now,
The season of joy.
But evil, the evil of man, is with us,
Blotting out joy as a cloud the sun.
Are not the hopes of this sea-son
Dust? Ashes?
Man kills, man kills, he dies.
Is it not as it has e-ver been?
Where is peace?
Where is brotherhood?
Where is joy? Where is joy?
Where is that joy?
It is better to light one candle…
Than to curse the darkness.

II
Though faith is mortal frail a leaf trembling in the winter's storm,
While it lives there is hope and for this,
for this we will light one candle.
awhile one man live
shoos soul is bare to love,
we will light one candle.
while one man lives
Whose soul is bare to love,
we will light one candle.
If one voice cries truth from the dark-ness,
If in the eyes of a child there is joy,
If one green thing re-news,
in innocence, the earth,
if the sun warms the sky-
If these yet exist,
there is hope and a reason for joy.


IIILord Christ!
Grant us mercy,
Grant us peace.
De-li-ver us from the sword that crushes,
from the hand that strips the mountains bare.
This Christmas Day, we will light our cancels.
Give them breath.
Give them life.
Together they will blaze
Illuminate the universe!
Amen.
Amen. IVAlleluia.
Alleluia.
Noel Noel Noel!