Monday, March 05, 2007

The Poetry of "The Peace of Wild Things" Vol. 3

The last 3 ~ here goes!


"The Year Turns Away From Me" by Morton Marcus (This one is kinda cool ~ it is another womens 3 part choral piece)

The year turns away from me,
I'm here on the other side of the hill,
Where winds are flames, blue wings in the meadow,
Tall steeples of ashes diminish at the meadow's edge
And far down the hillside
A deep chorus of boulders is singing the pebbles awake.



"The Stars" by Morton Marcus (and my personal worst)

The stars are grains of salt thrown over God's shoulder
They fly from us and we fly after
But the heart that dark star, the heart that heavy planet
Is all that we can know of heaven.



"may my heart always be open" by e.e. cummings (I'm not sure I make sense out of this one either)


may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile



One of the practice nights Morton Marcus (who lives in Santa Cruz) came to talk to us about the poetry. Never have I spent a more boring 3 hours! There was more than one person who wanted to know what he meant in "The Stars" And after his expounding I was thoroughly confused. He said there was no heaven in the poem for one thing. I thought it was actually funny at that part because after he explained the poem he asked if that made sense. There were a few noises of meaningful accent around the room while I was more lost than ever! I wasn't the only one in that boat either. :)

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Friday, March 02, 2007

The Poetry of "The Peace of Wild Things" Vol. 2

"Returning" by Wendell Berry (this one is probably my favorite piece of music in the whole work)

I was walking in a dark valley and above me the tops of the hills
had caught the morning light.
I heard the light singing as it went among the grassblades and the leaves.
I waded upward through the shadow
until my head emerged,
my shoulders mantled with the light,
and my whole body came up out of the darkness,
and stood at the new shore of the day.
Where I had come was home,
for my own house stood white where the dark river wore the earth.
The sheen of bounty was on the grass, and the spring of the year had come.



"i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)" by e.e. cummings (This one is a trio for women's voices and I do like this one.)

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)



And one more for this post:

"The Old Country" by Morton Marcus

Below the steep slopes inside us
There are mountain valleys with red-tiled roofs
Surrounded by plowed fields
Staked patches of grapevine
And domed churches in whose tiny graveyards
the slim cypress trees spiral toward memory

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