Done.

My Mandolin Sings

Like a thrush on the heather,

My mandolin sings.

Dancing as a tiny feather,

The joy that it brings!

If times be weighed by weather,

I'm lonely or sad --

Whatever my heart's tether,

My mandolin sings.

Her strings fly 'neath my fingers,

How happy our days.

Her high note chirping lingers

In air as she plays!

Deeply as a kitten purrs,

Her low notes uncurl.

Whichever part she prefers,

How happy our days.

Brooks babbling and firs swirling,

My mandolin cries --

Tails twitching, wings unfurling,

Their spirits arise!

As woodland winds are twirling

By day or by night

When there are dancers whirling

My mandolin cries.

by William Mark Gabriel

Once I figure out how, this post will indicate that it is covered by a Creative Commons license that permits commercial use, but no modifications, under United States copyright law.

For practical purposes, I am OK with people setting this to music, but my words must remain unchanged and be used with my name.

I would be happiest to see the words set to a tune already in the public domain, but adapted (if needed) as appropriate to the rules for a musician used by the organization publishing his or her work.

I am not doing this for profit, but as a shared learning exercise. Have fun.

_____

Afternote (10/26/10): It occurred to me recently that, for practical purposes, the Creative Commons copyright applies to all previous versions of this poem published on this blog. You can use any of them for the purposes stated above, provided you note that it's my variant (var.) version.

Afternote (2/10/11): It has also occurred to me I ought to make a technical note that the Creative Commons license I mentioned in this post is the Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. I think the HTML thing creativecommons.org sent me after I registered would have linked readers to that information. Since I don't permit links, it would have done no good to risk an HTML gaffe to put that in here.