Category Archives: Music

Bulletproof

Reading Italo, I see Italian youths preparing to swim while il Duce prepares for war. At home, on our couch, while afternoon leisure blends with our tea, a reporter speaks to a background of song: Australia may soon be under attack. The words overlap with piano and strings and my mind hears, I am titanium.

Lent: Man of Sorrows 1

What fuels my pride is nothing like what You gave up – true God, true man – when you bowed as low as bowing goes,     as low as heaven spans. What strikes my face is feather-like beside the spear that pierced Your side; my burdens roll onto the floor      beside the death YouContinue reading “Lent: Man of Sorrows 1”

Lent: New Song 1

Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth!…Tell of his salvation from day to day. (Psalm 96:1, 2b) Old songs rot in dead ears; Old ruts of thought declare: That was not me       I will try harder          I had no choice                 That’s just the person thatContinue reading “Lent: New Song 1”

Learning Bach

Moments of success are rare: arpeggio-dances, impossible harmonies, the sound as simple as the wind yet execution like a fear – fingers always forgetting how, only ever stumbling on success. Evasive moments of perfect beauty capture souls yet pass with sudden fumbles and flustering confusion when the movement of the hands cannot so perfectly attuneContinue reading “Learning Bach”

Epiphany: To an unknown painter

Too regal: There were no drapes to hail Him king, no cherubim in the background, aloft, casually decking the scene, mid-song. Yet this is right: if there were crowns, they would be laid at His feet; and knees, if wise, would know to bend. We foresee the pious, in the corners, turned toward their futureContinue reading “Epiphany: To an unknown painter”

Shoots and Stumps

“At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.” (Job 14:7) And new life sprouts where old life is cut down: See little shoots burst forth from severed trunk; The earth is singing where its joy was sunk; The smallestContinue reading “Shoots and Stumps”

Evening Collect: The Horn is Lifted (Cornucopia of Heaven)

Evening Collect: The Horn is Lifted After Hammock, “Tres Dominé”   O God – the empty horn is lifted; the hollow shell is given voice; the broken branch is whittled out and sings.   Three persons, my emptiness becomes Your fullness; my earthen jar becomes Your vessel; my bruised reed hums with Your song inContinue reading “Evening Collect: The Horn is Lifted (Cornucopia of Heaven)”

Expectation (The Cornucopia of Heaven)

Expectation After J.S. Bach, “Mass in B Minor: Et Expecto Resurrectionem”   We              begin           small: a kernel        dropping        to soil a weak          and fickle      seed a broken        passing         moment dust                          expectantly,                                   expectant… of what           breaks forth                               in trumpet-shower,             in polyphonic spring,                        Continue reading “Expectation (The Cornucopia of Heaven)”

Prayers of Intercession (Cornucopia of Heaven)

Prayers of Intercession After Felix Mendelssohn, “Veni Domine, Op.39”   Veni Domine, et noli tardare. Come, Lord, and do not delay. (Traditional prayer)   With empty horn and plaintive voice:                 Veni domine, we cry. Sunk in mire, sunk in self:               Et noli tardare. Our earth is cracked, our reservoirs dry:             Veni domine,Continue reading “Prayers of Intercession (Cornucopia of Heaven)”