Texts for Operatic Poem (performed by Dr. Marc Hudson; professor emeritus of English; poet)
Lament: Oh, Miriam, when I consider how my light is spent…Your brother struck the rock for water ‘cause he forgot that rivers flow not past but always through us, that water’s daybreak is already waiting under the rock …But gone, Miriam, you’re gone, and I consider how my life is spent with fear of dust forever in my mouth ….
Currents over Babbling Water: Let’s lean into the rushing water, the babbling stream, the one with dancing on its wings…the one that flows not past us, the one that does not need the staff, the cane, the rod, to quench our thirst, the one that flows through us, thrilling, tingling, and vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them slide and sing…..
Shifting and Sliding: When I consider how my light is spent …Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep … and our life… finds…sermons in stones if we care to listen closely enough. Yet have we dumped our doubts on desert’s endless diamond dust? Have we turned our backs on what we were sent to do? Are we the ones that shift and slide rashly between the rocks? – Whatever is unsure is possible…Beyond the reach of thought let imagination figure our hopes… Let’s lean into the storming thrashing water …
Rock Fall: Oh, Miriam, people’s good deeds we write in water, the evil deeds are etched in brass, in falling rocks, perhaps …But you, where flows your gaze while you stand ankle-deep in water? Have we forgotten that they also serve who only stand and wait? Those who let nature have designs on them?
Miriam Coda: You’re east of sorrow, now, Miriam – your exodus our own - and our pains do soften as you sing; the sun you must have swallowed avows that we’re not lost to care. On barely weighted wings you seem to sail the glinting seas inviting us to drink the soothing cup of soul’s sacred sounds. You’re east of sorrow, Miriam, and flood the barren rock with praise. Singing, always, you stare into the life of things; the ones that have design on us. So, we will drink and walk and wait and see.
Note to the listener/reader:
The text collage that runs through the various movements is a combination of my own poetry interspersed with lines from the following poets:
Marc Hudson. “East of Sorrow”
Sophocles. “Oedipus Rex”
Shakespeare. “King Henry VI,” “Henry VIII”
John Milton. Sonnet 19 “When I consider how my life is spent”
John Muir. “Mountain Thoughts”
Wendell Berry. “Water”
Wendell Berry. “Testament”