Fly Away Songbird
Ryan Opp

I walk the paths of life along
All through my world where'er they go.
And as I walk, I lift a song.
That song is me, it's all I know.

She came to me upon a time:
On once beneath a crystal moon.
She loved my song, she liked my rhyme,
And there we shared a single tune.

Fly away Songbird! you had all my love
―Inspired it, desired it, required it―
Fly away Songbird! you came to me from above.

And so we lived and loved so well
While time stood still in forest's glade
'Til dark and doubt around us fell
And murked the pools love's rain had made.

My songbird cried, she'd sing no more
Her simple tunes for me so gay.
So from my hand I sadly tore
My little bird to fly away.

Fly away Songbird! for now love must go
―Dying out, flying out, crying out―
Fly away Songbird! I will always miss you so.

I wish that she may fly so high
Beyond a world that causes pain,
To laugh at life in God's great sky,
To someday learn to sing again.

And then her smile once more I'll see
When she at last finds fit to land:
Perhaps inside a nearby tree,
But oh! I wish her on my hand.

Fly away Songbird! be what you will be
―Nightingale, Tinuviel, sweet Ariel―
Fly away Songbird! oh come and fly back to me.

Tinuviel:  Sindarin (Tolkien’s Elvish) meaning “nightingale,” literally “daughter of twilight”