1. |
Nectar (story)
04:40
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2. |
Storytime (song)
02:57
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There is a story the bees used to tell
(Long ago, long ago)
There is a story the bees used to tell
Which makes it hard to disbelieve.
There was a citadel under a dome
(Long ago, long ago)
All lined with velvet and honeycomb
(Believe me, child, believe me)
There was a queen in the citadel
(Long ago, long ago)
In gold she reigned, in sweetness dealt
(Believe me, child, believe me)
She wore a crown of a thousand eyes
(Long ago, long ago)
Her people filled the summer skies
(Believe me, child, believe me)
But when the wintertime came around
(Long ago, long ago)
They slept beneath the frozen ground
(Believe me, child, believe me)
And as they slept, their dreams took flight
(Long ago, long ago)
And they flew away into the night
(Believe me, child, believe me)
And where each dream of summer fell
(Long ago, long ago)
There grew a tale for bees to tell
(Believe me, child, believe me)
There is a story the bees used to tell
(Long ago, long ago)
There is a story the bees used to tell
Which makes it hard to disbelieve.
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3. |
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4. |
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I knew you by your scarlet shoes, as red as cherry wine
Your lips, I knew, were cherry too; I took it as a sign.
I watched you in the market-place; I watched you in the street
And though I never saw your face, my heart was at your feet.
My scarlet slippers, lined with silk, were all you knew of me.
The rest was just a mirage, like the shimmer of the sea.
You wanted to protect me from a world I'd never known;
I wanted freedom; unknown skies; a place to call my own.
I promised you my heart, my soul, if you would come to me,.
You promised you would make me whole if I showed you the sea.
You hid your face so modestly that I believed your lie
And then, together, off we rode into the desert sky.
That night, we slept beneath the skies, below a desert moon,
As scarlet as my silken shoes upon the rosy dune.
You spoke to me of love; you said your heart was all aflame;
You said no man would see my face, or even speak my name.
At last we reached the ocean, gleaming far across the plain.
I waited, but you never came;I searched for you in vain.
I knew then, by your scarlet shoes abandoned on the shore
That I would never make you mine, or see you any more.
Beneath the waves, the mermaids sing. Their voices rise and fall
In laughter and in welcoming. I must obey their call.
Barefoot I dance upon the sand; unveiled, I ride the sea
And by my red shoes on the shore, you will remember me.
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5. |
The Sand Rider (story)
05:50
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6. |
The Sand Rider (song)
04:09
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I ride a horse of sand across the hot waves of the desert.
We have lived a thousand years without a glimpse of sea.
And yet, I hear it every night; beyond the desert, voices
Whispering, and calling me like spirits from the deep.
They say a thousand years ago, this desert was the ocean;
Mermaids lived below the waves in gleaming halls of pearl.
Stars line the shore; birds swoop and soar; the waters move like dancers;
Sweeping shells and polished stones across the rosy shore.
There are no mermaids any more, and yet I sometimes hear them
Singing from the pearly haze that shimmers from the sand.
They tell me it's a mirage, but I can hear their voices
Callimng me towards a sea I've only seen in dreams.
And yet, I've seen their bones, like splintered driftwood in the desert;
The snakeskin of their silver scales like mica in the stone.
They tell me all I need to do is listen to their voices,
And follow them towards the sea that is my secret home.
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7. |
Moonlight (story)
05:53
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8. |
Moonlight (song)
03:24
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From a thousand miles away, my love, I heard you calling.
You were from another world, and yet you heard my call.
I danced for you; I sang for you; and yet you did not see me
Riding in the starry skies above my sea-green hall.
When we are joined at last, my love, our joy will be eternal.
Our marriage bed will be a ship with sails of phosphorescent silk.
The stars will sing; the waves will rise; and we will be together
Ruling sea and stars and sky in harmony, forever.
How much longer must we wait, my love, before that moment?
You turn your face away from me into the clouds above.
How long must I dream of the sky before you call me homewards
And we are both immersed in the sweet turbulence of love?
My coral throne and starfish crown will drift into the darkness
Of the sea-bed, far below, where seaweed forests sway.
I’ll rise no more to see the skies or dance upon the surface
But languid, in the inky depths, forever, I will stay.
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Joanne Harris and the Storytime Band Huddersfield, UK
Joanne Harris (joanne-harris.co.uk) is the internationally acclaimed author of over 20 novels, plus short stories, libretti
and scripts. With the Storytime Band, she performs original music and songs - along with the stories that inspired them - festivals across the UK.
“Harris plays a mean flute... her band supply accomplished folk-prog textures. Enchanting.” (Prog Magazine, August 2018)
... more
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