Hello Moon

Composer: Gail McDermott
Lyricist: Gail McDermott
Arranger: Gail McDermott

Hello Moon 20191231

Print Song:

Submitter Comments

As I drove to the Paul Winter Consort Solstice performance at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in 1980, this song came to me. I simply called it “Hello Moon” because of the splendor of a giant orange Moon over the NYS Thruway. Since many of my stream of consciousness poems/songs are lost if not recorded, I pulled out a cassette recorder and caught that fish! It had a Native American spirit when it was conceived, and their sense of giving “personhood” to inanimate things such as Moon, Star, Cloud, etc., is why so many capital letters in the lyrics.

The following year I went to the concert with a boyfriend, said hi to the Consort, but rather than hang out back stage, I sat in the audience with him, half a football field away from the stage, and was totally stunned that Susan Osborn opened the concert with this song. Not only that, she had been using it at the Open Center in NYC for workshops. So they turned up the house lights and the audience participated in singing it! To me, it was totally astounding!

Sharing the song was like putting a note in a bottle… and finding it on many shores! From time to time I receive phone calls or emails from people—like the father whose son was born with Cerebral Palsy. He sang it as a lullaby every night during his baby’s initial intensive care stay in the hospital. It is a delight to realize that when we are given a gift, and we share it, the gift continues to give to others. ~ Gail

[2017.11.01—Small change made to the “note” for verse 2 in measure 6 to clarify.—Ellen
[2019.12.31—Lyrics corrected per songwriter. “Hello Night. Hello Life that is long.”]

Lyrics

Hello Moon. Hello Star in the Sky.
Hello Cloud. Hello Tear in my Eye.
Hello Night. Hello Life that is long.
Hello Friend. Hello Pain that is gone.

Long are we waiting Awakening.
Long are we singing this Song.
Long are we waiting Awakening.
Long are we singing this Song.

We have seeds that we plant in the Earth.
We give our lives to the process of birth.
In what we do, what we think, what we feel
Becomes the grist in the turn of the wheel.

Long are we waiting Awakening.
Long are we singing this Song.
Long are we waiting Awakening.
Long are we singing this Song.

Na na na, na na na na na na.
Na na na, na na na na na na.
Na na na, na na na na na na.
Na na na, na na na na na na.

Hello Moon. Hello Star in the Sky.
Hello Cloud. Hello Tear in my Eye.
Hello Night. Hello Life that is long.
Hello Friend. Hello Pain that is gone.