From the recording The Goddess
Woven throughout the fabric of the album are little ambient sections designed to provide time for the listener to re-group and assimilate between such an eclectic group of songs. They are designed as an integral part of the listening experience, encouraging the listener to get a sense of time, setting, or mood and to help in the ‘immersion’ process. The section preceding Demeter Rising is one of those sections, depicting the sound and vibe of a meadow on a pristine morning in early June to set the emotional stage for the song that it segues into.
I originally composed Demeter Rising as an instrumental (it appears as such on my 1988 release “Communion’) but lyrics soon appeared. I wound up presenting the lyricised version as a Mother’s Day ‘gift’ to my then-wife who was eight months pregnant, back in May of 1988, as a kind of Ode to Motherhood. You now have the modern (sung) version, featuring the lovely and talented Kari Groven on lead vocal.
Lyrics
Demeter Rising
mother earth, father blue skies
old tale for brand new eyes
see sweet child, rolling green plains
caressed by suns and rains
the wheat fields grow, they sway in winds of change
near-bursting with life, so known yet so strange
she’s the dance, she’s the dancer
grand design and designer
call her Demeter, rising from this fertile earth
master plan, laws eternal
what once was is living still
Goddess, touch…
touch and bless us
where water falls o’er rocks
where night-gardens wash the noise of worlds away
as suns turn to moons we can see her play
she’s the dance (now behold from whom the harvests come)
she’s the dancer (Demeter the strong and wild one)
grand design (bringer of abundance to the earth)
and designer (child of the mother giving birth)
call her Demeter, rising from this fertile earth
she’s the dance (now behold from whom the harvests come)
she’s the dancer (Demeter the strong and wild one)
grand design (bringer of abundance to the earth)
and designer (child of the mother giving birth)
she’s the dance (now behold from whom the harvests come)
the Midnight Dancer (Demeter the strong and wild one)
Demeter, rise…
music & lyrics by George Wallace
© 1988/2008 Celestial Songs (ASCAP)