Vancouver Master Chorale’s upcoming concert – A Celebration of Light – this Dec. 6&7, is centered around the luminous poetry reflecting on the journey to home, the hearth, and the ineffable light that illumines our path during this season of joy. Please enjoy a few selections from our concert.
Choose Something Like A Star
Robert Frost
O Star (the fairest one in sight),
We grant your loftiness the right
To some obscurity of cloud –
It will not do to say of night,
Since dark is what brings out your light.
Some mystery becomes the proud.
But to be wholly taciturn
In your reserve is not allowed.
Say something to us we can learn
By heart and when alone repeat.
Say something! And it says “I burn.”
But say with what degree of heat.
Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade.
Use language we can comprehend.
Tell us what elements you blend.
It gives us strangely little aid,
But does tell something in the end.
And steadfast as Keats’ Eremite,
Not even stooping from its sphere,
It asks a little of us here.
It asks of us a certain height,
So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.
I will light candles this Christmas
Howard Thurman
I will light Candles this Christmas;
Candles of joy despite all sadness,
Candles of hope where despair keeps watch,
Candles of courage for fears ever present,
Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days,
Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens,
Candles of love to inspire all my living
Candles that will burn all year long.
When the song of angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among the other,
To make music in the heart.
Lux Aurumque
Edward Esch
Light,
warm and heavy as pure gold
and the angels sing softly
to the new-born baby.
Seeking Light
Charles Anthony Silvestri
I have lived rich and loved well,
Traveled the world,
Called many places home;
And now I travel on.
I travel on through the darkness,
Travel on through the night,
Travel on along my pilgrim road
Seeking toward the light.
I have drunk my fill of the cups of life,
Of joy and fear,
Of anguish and boundless bliss;
But now I travel on.
I travel on through the darkness,
Travel on through the night,
Travel on along my pilgrim road
Seeking toward the light.
My spirit journeys on into the moonlight,
With steady steps and sure,
Along the well-trod pathway
Between here and forever.
I travel on through the darkness,
Travel on through the night,
Travel on along my pilgrim road
Seeking toward the light.
I travel on along my spirit journey
Seeking second sight.
Sure On This Shining Night
James Agee
(Excerpted from ‘Description of Elysium’)
Sure on this shining night
Of starmade shadows round,
Kindness must watch for me
This side the ground.
The late year lies down the north.
All is healed, all is health.
High summer holds the earth.
Hearts all whole.
Sure on this shining night
I weep for wonder
Wand’ring far alone
Of shadows on the stars.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Where the Light Begins
Jan Richardson
Perhaps it does not begin.
Perhaps it is always.
Perhaps it takes
a lifetime
to open our eyes,
to learn to see
what has forever
shimmered in front of us-
the luminous line
of the map
in the dark
the vigil flame
in the house
of the heart
the love
so searing
we cannot keep
from singing,
from crying out
in testimony
and praise.
Perhaps this day
will be the mountain
over which
the dawn breaks.
Perhaps we
will turn our face
toward it,
toward what has been
always.
Perhaps
our eyes
will finally open
in ancient recognition,
willingly dazzled,
illuminated at last.
Perhaps this day
the light begins
in us.
this light
Jordan Chaney
from the
mouth of the earth
like gold on fire
the sun speaks and
spills its secrets of life
of light
then sings them to me
I know what hope
feels like inside
a light in the spirit
a place not too distant
past shadows
and dimness
this light
I feel it
it shines
it shines
brighter
and brighter
waxing away
still making a way
sorrow became faith
woke up the next day
with purpose
with grace
the sun in my soul
golden light on my face