Texts and Translations
Spiritual
Chorus:
Cain’t no one know at sunrise
how this day is gonna end.
Cain’t no one know at sunset
if the next day will begin.
​
In this world of trouble and woe,
a person had better be ready to go.
We look for things to stay the same,
but in the twinkling of an eye, everything can be changed.
​
The troubles of this world fill our hearts with rage
from Soweto, to Stonewall, Birmingham and LA
We are searching for hope that lies within ourselves
as we fight against misogyny race hatred and AIDS.
-
Ysaye Barnwell
Easy on the Earth
Chorus:
Easy on the earth, lightly on the water,
remember this place is for your sons and daughters
Easy on the earth, lightly on the water,
Remember who this place is for.
Yeah, get your kids to a garden with the garden they’ll grow,
And they’ll learn to go easy, they’ll learn to live slow,
Get your kids to a garden, with the garden they’ll grow,
And they’ll learn to go easy, yeah.
And get your kids to a river, with the river they’ll flow,
It’ll teach ‘em how to paddle, it’ll teach’ em how to row,
Get your kids to a river, with the river they’ll flow,
It’ll take ‘em where they need to go.
New Flower Verse by Kai Morgan
Let them see their reflection wherever they go,
In the rainwater, floodwater, sleet, hail, snow,
Let ‘em se their reflection wherever they go.
Easy, easy, I’m goin’ easy yeah.
-
Luke Wallace
Proclamation
Whereas the world is a house on fire;
Whereas the nations are filled with shouting;
Whereas hope seems small, sometimes
A single bird on a wire
Left by migration behind
Whereas I am free—despite all
Fire and anger and fear;
Be it therefore resolved a song
Shall be my calling—a song
Not yet made shall be vocation
And peaceful words the work
Of my remaining days
Whereas kindness is seldom in the news
And peace an abstraction
While war is real;
Whereas words are all I have;
Whereas my life is short;
And I am afraid;
Whereas I am free—despite all
Fire and anger and fear;
Be it therefore resolved a song
Shall be my calling—a song
Not yet made shall be vocation
And peaceful words the work
Of my remaining days
-
Kim Stafford
I Believe in the Prince of Peace
From Credo
I believe in the Prince of Peace. I believe that War is Murder. I believe that armies and navies are at bottom the tinsel and braggadocia of oppression and wrong; and I believe that the wicked conquest of weaker and darker nations by nations whiter and stronger but foreshadows the death of that strength.
-
Text excerpted from Credo by W.E.B. Du Bois
If Music Be the Food of Love
If music be the food of love,
Sing on, sing on, if music be the food of love.
I’ve got rhythm, I got harmony,
So I’m singin’ in the rain, and I’ll sing ‘n sing again.
If music be the food of love, sing on, sing on!
-
William Shakespeare (and others)
Vere languores nostros
Vere languores nostros ipse tulit,
et dolore nostros ipse portavit;
Cujus livore sanati sumus.
Dulce lignum, dulces clavos,
dulcia ferens pondera,
quae sola fuisti digna
sustinere Regem coelorum et Dominum.
​
Truly he himself bore our griefs,
and he himself carried our sorrows;
by his wounds we are healed.
Sweet cross, sweet nails,
sweetly bearing the weight,
you alone were worthy
to bear the King of heaven and the Lord.
Isaiah 53: 4-5
​
Abendlied
Text from Luke 24:29:
Bleib’ bei uns, denn es will Abend werden,
Und der Tag hat sich geneiget, sich geneiget,
O bleib’ bei uns, denn es will Abend werden.
Translation by John Rutter (b. 1945):
Bide with us, for evening shadows darken,
And the day will soon be over, soon be over,
O bide with us, for evening shadows darken.
​
Alleluia
​
Wondrous Glow
today collect the dazzling shelter of flowers
stitch a crown large enough for the globe
fragrant enough for satellites to lift their noses
take the prayer of night into your arms
as she sleeps, breathe with her
breathe with the night
there are times when there is nothing
left to do, but create
form the unseen into a tangible communion
of stardust, place the galaxy on your tongue
let your mouth be a wondrous glow
your words a beacon
when everything is lost
imagine yourself as more than an earth-
quaking body a gift
the streaking tail of a comet
become that which holds your eye
that which makes you gasp
-
Amir Rabiyah
To Sit and Dream
To sit and dream, to sit and read,
To sit and learn about the world
Outside our world of here and now —
Our problem world —
To dream of vast horizons of the soul
Through dreams made whole,
Unfettered, free — help me!
All you who are dreamers too,
Help me to make our world anew.
I reach out my dreams to you.
-
Langston Hughes
To Propagate a Home
We must have uncommon strength to face the wound
and refuse to let it wither
We must have uncommon faith to plunge our hands into the land
And nurture an abandoned place
They say it’s a lost cause –
They haven’t seen the new roots
Weaving through the dark.
They say it isn’t worth it –
They haven’t watch with joy
As each new bud emerges.
When they cut off a branch they say is dying,
It takes uncommon faith to grow.
These roots have never forgotten
How to grab hold of the soil.
This branch has never forgotten
How to reach up toward the sky.
-
Ayanna Woods
Stick with Love
I have decided to stick with love.
Hate is too great a burden to bear.
I realize that hate is just made of
Something related mainly to fear.
Don’t be afraid when you don’t understand,
Search and you’ll find the truth.
Then when you’ve found it,
Release all your fear to make room for love.
-
Aaron Manswell
​
Sacred Place
To learn more about this piece, visit this link.
I. Opening Prayer
In the dusk of the river, the wind
gone, the leaves grow still—
The beautiful poise of lightness,
The heavy world pushing toward it.
—Wendell Berry (Excerpt from “The Porch Over the River”)
II. Amidah
“How softly these mountain rocks are adorned, and how fine and reassuring the company they keep – their brows in the sky, their feet set in groves and gay emerald meadows, a thousand flowers leaning confidingly against their adamantine bosses, while birds bees butterflies help the river and waterfalls to stir all the air into music – things frail and fleeting and types of permanence meeting here and blending as if into this glorious mountain temple Nature had gathered her choicest treasures, whether great or small to draw her lovers into close confiding communion with her.”
—John Muir to Teddy Roosevelt (on preserving Yosemite National Park)
III. Shema
The earth says have a place, be what that place
requires; hear the sound the birds imply
and see as deep as ridges go behind
each other.
​
The earth says every summer have a ranch
that’s minimum: one tree, one well, a landscape
that proclaims a universe - sermon
of the hills, hallelujah mountain,
highway guided by the way the world is tilted,
reduplication of mirage, flat evening:
a kind of ritual for the wavering.
​
The earth says where you live wear the kind
of color that your life is
and by listening with the same bowed head that sings
draw all things into one song, join
the sparrow on the lawn, and row that easy
way, the rage without met by the wings
within that guide you anywhere the wind blows.
​
Listening, I think that’s what the earth says.
—William Stafford
IV. Mi Shebeirach
May the source of strength
Who blessed the ones before us
Help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing
And let us say Amen
​
Bless those in need of healing with r'fuah sh'leimah*
The renewal of body, the renewal of spirit
And let us say Amen
—Old Testament
*(translation: complete and total healing)
V. Kaddish
“Let my thoughts come to you, when I am gone, like the afterglow of sunset at the margin of starry silence.”
—Rabindranath Tagore
VI. Closing Prayer
In the dusk of the river, the wind
gone, the leaves grow still—
The beautiful poise of lightness,
The heavy world pushing toward it.
Make Them Hear You
Go out and tell our story.
Let it echo far and wide.
Make them hear you,
Make them hear you.
How justice was our battle
And how justice was denied.
Make them hear you,
Make them hear you.
And say to those who blame us
For the way we chose to fight
That sometimes there are battles
That are more than black or white...
​
And I could not put down my sword
When justice was my right.
Make them hear you
Make them hear you
​
Go out and tell our story
To your daughters and your sons.
Make them hear you,
Make them hear you.
And tell them, in our struggle,
We were not the only ones.
Make them hear you,
Make them hear you.
​
Your sword can be a sermon
Or the power of the pen.
Teach every child to raise their voice
And then, my people, then
Will justice be demanded
By ten million righteous men.
​
Make them hear you.
When they hear you,
I'll be near you
Again.
-
Lynn Ahrens