Elegy For Lady Day

ELEGY FOR LADY DAY 'For all we know, this may be only be a dream We come and go like the ripples on a stream' Thus it was you sang with body wracked and failing Yet with that unmistakable voice and phrasing Lady Day we'll never be the same With such an ache of loss in our heart and soul But we'll remember you in your youth and fame Before slings and arrows of life had taken their toll Those songs already works of fabulous invention The classics of Gershwin, Berlin, Arlen, Porter and Kerne You brought to each a new meter, form and dimension Wherein your creative magic could be discerned Your songs though not new: the tunes nor the lyrics they bore Each verse, each phrase was recreated there and then It was as though it had never been sung before We knew the song but knew not from where nor when Stream of words and melody now traced a different bed Like a brook in which every ripple, rill and eddy Followed new bends and flows of another stead To be answered and enhanced by Lester and Teddy. * In a time when injustice and cruelty was a curse in the nation And you as a talented black girl knew it well A 'strange and wonderful fruit' was borne of your innovation You became an icon, a symbol to ring freedom's bell So in distant England, when I first heard that voice Then I knew that it was a unique and special sound I saw that here was something to rejoice And in my mind this queen of song was crowned Let us therefore not make this a 'gloomy Sunday' Let no 'black coach of night' disturb our mood Give thanks that one so beautiful came to us one day And enhanced our lives to be more joyfully viewed * Lester Young and Teddy Wilson