PEN ART - A BEAUTIFUL POEM AND A LOVELY SONG

(Commentary by Sheila Gail Landgraf, poetry and song lyrics by Allen Levi)

Today's Pen Art is not my own, I must give all credit to Allen Levi, who has blessed us with the following words of a very poetic song:

  

Golden Choir of Aubiere,

( by Allen Levi)

Rows and rows of bowing heads,

Sunflowers say their evening prayer,

A congregation of the field,

The golden choir of Aubiere.

Dawn to dusk, they only turn

Up to heaven where God lives,

Every face a separate light

Reflections of the love He gives.

 Lord of colors, Lord of light,

 Won't you teach me how to pray

 Like the flowers of Aubiere?

 Won't you guide me through the day?

Rose and lily grow so fair,

But, Lord, make me like the sunflower,

Looking always to your face,

Seeking you from hour to hour.

 Lord of colors, Lord of light,

 Won't you teach me how to pray

 Like the flowers of Aubiere?

 Won't you guide me though the day?

Rows and rows of bowing heads,

the golden choir of Aubiere,

the golden choir of Aubiere.

 As winter sweps across the landscape turning everything brown and gray, I long for the bright vivid colors of spring.  A song is forming in the caverns of my mind, and I catch myself humming....hopefully.  

I seem to need a large dose of it today as I look out the office windows and think of other places I would rather be.  The first place that comes to mind is the place in the song I hum, a place called Aubiere.  I know it is in the south of  France where the sunflowers and the lavendar are said to grow side by side for miles and miles.  

No, I’ve never been there, except in my imagination while listening to Allen Levi’s song.  If I could go though, I would head straight for the sunflower fields and check out the rows and rows of praying heads. 

If the sunflowers stand next to a contrasting purple lavendar field, all for the better!  The lovely contrasting flowers are like the two countries they hail from; each beautifiul in their own unique way.  Those beautiful yellow rows of color were such a sweet gift from America to France by the Spainards back in the 1600's.  Funny how people think of France when you mention sunflowers because it was the American Indian that first cultivated the flower.  What a gift to the land they have been, for both countries.

Everyone has a favorite song, poem, story, piece of art, right?  Golden Choir of Aubiere has always been one of my old favorites, as much for the words as for the melody.   Thank you Allen Levi for blessing us with the melody.  

There seems to be some mystery behind the lyrics that I cannot get to the core of, something that has not yet been revealed, but it doesn't stop the lovely haunting music from capturing my heart.   The simple beauty of the song has resided a tresure inside my mind from the first time I heard the poetic lyrics so many years ago.    

I first experienced the rich, poetic words and the simple tune inside my welcoming ears during a time when I was missing the joy of being constantly surrounded by anything of  beauty or grace.  In my state of struggling through much day-to-day dullness, these words lent the essence of what I found missing from my surroundings.  The slow soft lyrics and the bright vivid word pictures helped me to hold on until better days arrived.  They made me lift my head and become grateful in the midst of all circumstances.  They made me long for the simple life of the sunflower, one of joy, one of worship and faith.  That is what sunflowers do, they pray and worship and look up to God.  They are always patiently beautiful and cheerful no matter their surroundings.  They pop up in the most unexpected places and make your day just a little bit more special.  I learned back in those bleak times how to be a sunflower.  That lesson has made such a difference in the outcome of my life.  

I can now look back on those days and smile and know that God was forming and shaping my character into the person He wanted me to be.  He was teaching me to leave my own visions behind and look at the better vision He had chosen to give to me, one of simple beauty, joyous praise and thanksgiving.  We never realize how important these qualities are until we have lived in the place where they do not exist.   I pray that your days are all filled with sunflowers!

 

There is a field somewhere  in Aubiere where constant praise is being offered.  

Oh that we could all live like that lovely golden choir all the time!  

Oh that we could teach out hearts to sing the song that Allen Levi sang while (I suppose) he was there observing the beauty of his surroundings.  

There is a place like Aubiere out there for all of us.  We must not get lost in the hurry of our days and forget to pause in the place of peace and beauty and give thanks for the simplicity of God's plan.  

It all becomes very simple when you observe the Golden Choir of Aubiere.