Hi all, I have solved a longstandng mystery of where these words originated.

Indeed they appear twice in 1970 - sung beautifully as a round in First Moog Quartet's "Miracles" and recited by an adult man in Perth County's "Listen to the Kids." I first heard the powerful recitation while listening to that gorgeously far-out trippy album, First Moog Quartet, which really is a transcendental work of art.

But I found the spoken-word poetry in "Miracles" so incredibly odd that I ended up quote-searching some of the lyrics, which is how I found this thread.

Ain't it odd that both songs have the same poem but were published in 1970?

Well, I learned some STRANGE knowledge about the origin of these wonderful words!

They come from a 1966 anthology of poems by children, titled Miracles, for which I've just created a Wikipedia article!

After finding a 1966 New York Times article: I learned that this beautiful poem was written by Annabel Laurance, an Ugandan girl then 10 years old. It was collected by Richard Lewis c. '64-66, for his book Miracles which collected 200 poems from children around the English-speaking world. This poem is "My Brain" and here it is in full (your memory was great, OP):

      I have a little brain tucked safely in my head;
      and another little brain, which is in the air instead.
      This follows me and plays with me and talks to me in bed.
      The other one confuses me - the one that's in my head.

This no doubt meant that both musicians had the 1966 book Miracles and used it to inspire their 1970 works.

Interestingly, this poem has been quoted again and again by scholars, psychologists and poets even into the 2020s.
Literally over 50 years of existence in the cultural zeitgeist and not many realize this was a trippy shocking poem by a kid that was reprinted and even collected by the US Department of Education.


Inspired by this thread and its cultural notability, I have created a new article titled "My Brain" where you can view the journey of this strange poem in chronological order.

Anyhow, beautiful thread and thought I'd update with some interesting cultural anthropology. Hope you have all been doing well.

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Link fixed. ---mudelf