poetry – dw piano music

The last time I published music here was in December, 2018; I finally have something new to post and I hope you like it.

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Here is a poem I saw recently on a blog I follow that captures some of the emotion I feel when playing this piece. I’ve taken it from here: https://poets.org/poem/memoriam-ring-out-wild-bells

In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells]
Alfred Lord Tennyson – 1809-1892
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
This poem is in the public domain.

Grace and peace to you…

As we move into the season of Lent this coming week and ponder the mysteries of our longings and fallibility, of Jesus’ willingness to be falsely accused and unjustly executed, of his final victory over darkness and death and what that means to us…I offer this piano setting of a poem I wrote based on John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 10, known for it’s opening line “Death be not proud”.

Grace and peace to you…

Continue reading “New music – Death Be Not Proud” →

Unimportance

Some move more slowly,

Their business nothing more than

Living or dying.


dw, 27 Dec 2017

Continue reading “Unimportance” →

Importance

Moving quickly means

Your business is important -
 
So goes the charade.


dw, 27 Dec 2017

Continue reading “Importance” →

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. The mind that responds to the intellectual and spiritual values that lie hidden in a poem, a painting, or a piece of music, discovers a spiritual vitality that lifts it above itself, takes it out of itself, and makes it present to itself on a level of being that it did not know it could ever achieve.

— Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets.
Words for the Year is one of my favorite blogs.
Enjoy!

Oh do you have time 
to linger 
for just a little while 
out of your busy 

and very important day 
for the goldfinches 
that have gathered 
in a field of thistles 

for a musical battle, 
to see who can sing 
the highest note, 
or the lowest, 

or the most expressive of mirth, 
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air

as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude –
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing

just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,

do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.

via “Invitation” by Mary Oliver — Words for the Year

Photo by Ray Hennessy on Unsplash