Story Behind The Song
An excerpt from a new audio book titled UNSUSPECTING FRIENDS, narrated by author Michael Drew Shaw. Inspired by Shel Silverstein's THE GIVING TREE and THE TRAVELER by Richard Adams.
Song Description
Enjoy the memories of a Sweet Gum tree that was chopped down, taken to a mill in Grayling, Michigan and turned into a picnic table. This chapter is about a crystal clear night in 1982 when Sweet Gum looked up into the night sky and began thinking about wh
| Song Length |
3:09 |
Genre |
Spoken Word - General |
| Tempo |
Floating |
Lead Vocal |
Male Vocal |
| Mood |
Tranquil, Peaceful |
Subject |
Imagination, Infinity |
| Language |
English |
| |
Lyrics
NARRATIVE
I first encountered the Heavenly Bodies when I was a young Sweet Gum tree, part of the witch hazel family, with my maple-like leaves flapping in the breeze and my fragrant fruit dangling from the tips of my branches.
I am distantly related to the sweet gale marsh plant. Sweet gales are part of the wax-myrtle family. Then there are the sweet flags and the sweet ferns that I never knew much about except that they were plants, not trees. Now I could go on about all the others including the sweet sops, sweet peppers, sweet peas, sweet Williams, sweet cherries, sweet clovers, sweet corns, sweet briars and sweet bays, but I won't.
Anyway, heavenly bodies are not just the planets that move in the night sky. They are moving during the day too. We just can't see them. Heavenly bodies are any body that shines by reflected light and revolves around the sun. I've been studying them since I was a sprig because there is not much to do from sunset to sunrise other than look up. And I have learned that looking up at night gives you a different perspective on just about everything.
I can even name the Planets with my eyes closed. From the rim of the sun there's Mercury, then Venus, then Earth and then Mars, then Jupiter and Saturn. Then the one that begins with U, then Neptune and finally Pluto, or at least it was true in 1982 which is the year I'm remembering here.
But now Pluto is considered the second-largest dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-largest body directly orbiting the Sun. Pluto is composed of rock and ice and is relatively small, about one fifth the size of our moon.
In August, 2006 scientists demoted Pluto because of his size. Personally I think they should have left well enough alone! Pluto will always be a Planet to me, no matter what those PHds say.
Just look at all that night out there!
I look up and I wonder what it means. I've got a sneaking suspicion life is not what it seems. Sometimes I hear someone call. Maybe there is a man in the moon after all.
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