"Friend: Download This Free Proclamation for Local Use "
In simple, true words Kim Stafford's poem transforms peace from "abstraction" into living, breathing action. I was honored when he entrusted me with his words. "Be It Therefore Resolved" was commissioned in 2011 by The Congressional Chorus (Washington D.C.) The poem (and Congressional bills) are written in the form of a resolution.
Stafford's response upon hearing this setting for the first time:
When the voices come down to the simple moment of "hope seems small" I felt the power of the individual, the predicament but also the power of one to keep singing, waiting, watching, listening, ready for what may come next. I know what you have done with my poem will change the way I hear my voice in the process of my own writing. And I don't know that I have ever experienced such an intimate and generous consideration of something I have written as I heard in your setting, word by word, syllable by syllable.
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 kindness is seldom in the news
and peace an abstraction
while war is real;
Whereas my words are all I have;
Whereas my life is short;
Whereas 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.
In simple, true words Kim Stafford's poem transforms peace from "abstraction" into living, breathing action. I was honored when he entrusted me with his words. "Be It Therefore Resolved" was commissioned in 2011 by The Congressional Chorus (Washington D.C.) The poem (and Congressional bills) are written in the form of a resolution.
Stafford's response upon hearing this setting for the first time:
When the voices come down to the simple moment of "hope seems small" I felt the power of the individual, the predicament but also the power of one to keep singing, waiting, watching, listening, ready for what may come next. I know what you have done with my poem will change the way I hear my voice in the process of my own writing. And I don't know that I have ever experienced such an intimate and generous consideration of something I have written as I heard in your setting, word by word, syllable by syllable.