When I was alive, the birds would nest upon my bows
And through long winter nights the storms would ground me how
And when the day would call I'd raise my branches to the sun
I was the child of earth and sky and all the world was one

But now that I am dead, the birds no longer singing me
And I feel no more the wind and rain as when I was a tree
But bound so tight in wire strings I have no room to grow
And I am but a slave who sings when master draws the bowl

But sometimes, in my memories, I can see the birds in fly
And I can sing of sweet dark earth and endless starry nights
But, oh, my favorite song of all I truly do believe
Is the song that sunlight sang to me while dancing on my leaves