I'd absolutely love to hear any tune suggestion!

I agree my metre is rough. (I'm delighted that you still liked the ideas, Gargoyle!) I most wish I could replace "strength," since that string of unvoiced consonants (-ength re-) is so awkward. But every other phrasing I could think of either added length or caused the meaning to drift badly. Root, stem, branches, and all, the entire plant works to "raise" leaves and supply their needs. The leaves return sugar energy made from sunlight and water to all the plant's cells and symbionts. Likewise the adult human breadwinner shares vital economic power with family or community "supporters."

Would it be better if I add syllables to make the rhythm completely regular? Although I couldn't hear in my mind a good tune or chords to carry the lyrics, I did build in a beat, though at a glance one can't tell in the version above which lines begin with on-beats or off-beats. Here is an example modified to start all verse lines with off-beats (da-DA-da-DA... except where a preceding line can end with an off-beat: "power," "hour.") The chorus can use a triple beat as shown here, or any other pattern. For that matter, is it even helpful to have a chorus in this song?

(Chorus:)
LEAVES decay, FORests burn.
NOthing's lost; THEY'LL return.
EV'R homeward CIRcle-ing
WE give life IN our turn.

A loved one's life, a withered leaf -
There's pain and loss and fear and grief -
Why do we bud and grow, to fall and die?
Upraised in green and tender youth
To catch the sun and find our truth,
Sweet strength repays the ones who lift us high.

O, dance in winds of life and power
Living ev'ry gifted hour,
Shine with brightest wisdom near our end,
When wind-torn young, or age-worn leaves
In tumbling, crumbling mem-o-ries
Make soil to feed next season's growth again.

Would you give up your pain and grief
For safety as a pressed dry leaf
Emotionless and brittle on a page?
The mountains rise and crumble too.
A perfect bloom is one that's new,
Renewing year by year or age by age.

- - - - - - - -


While trying clumsily to learn the tune suggestions given above, I was also intrigued by Genie's rearrangement of my lines to scan with The Water Is Wide (with the last 2 melodic lines of TWIW verse repeated on the last 2 lines of the lyric).

Your 124536 order works for the first verse I think, but meaning seems to get lost in the second. Your third verse modification is most exciting, though:

I would not trade my pain and grief
For safety as a dry, pressed leaf.
Year by year as ages flew,
The mountains rose and crumbled too.
A perfect bloom is one that's due
To die each year and bloom anew.


Thank you, friends! I'll be back. By the way, which lines are confusing?