Poet Annie Finch’s text for Butterfly Lullaby includes the beautifully evocative names of real butterflies—”wild indigo duskywing,” “southern cloudywing”— in a haunting lullaby for one, butterfly or child, who will inevitably fly away.

 

Butterfly Lullaby (as Winged Lullaby) was a winner of the Gregg Smith Choral Composition Contest and was premiered by Syracuse University’s Concert Choir, conducted by Elisa Dekaney.

 

This piece can be purchased for SA or SATB chorus through Graphite Marketplace. 

​

​

BUTTERFLY LULLABY

 

My wild indigo dusky wing
my mottled, broad-wing skipper, 
a sleepy, dreamy dusty wing, 
flying through my night.

 

My northern, southern, cloudy wing, 
my spring azure, my crescent pearl, 
a silver-spotted, sweet question mark, 
sleeping in my sky.

 

A tiger swallowtail, harvester, 
moving through my hours, 
an eyed brown in the redwing dark, 
wrapped softly in my words.

 

—Annie Finch

First published in Calendars, Tupelo Press, 2003.