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PROGRAMMING NOTE from the Author and Archivist


So obviously I just stopped blogging on this platform. I'll get back to it eventually. Or not. I'm taking a break from all social media. It seemed necessary for my mental health.

The last few years have been busy and … challenging:

- 2015 Happened.
- 2016 Let's call it The Lost Year. (Obviously words failed me.)
- 2017 about broke me. Literally. Mentally.
- 2018 was ridiculous, proving 2017 was just a warm up. (Good thing I was already broken so it couldn't hurt as much.#2018TrashCanFire I thought things were going okay, but maybe not?)

- 2019 was such a blur. I know there were highlights, but then stuff happened and carried into the next year...

- And then in March#2020 really took a turn. Who can even categorize 2020? Do we dare?


I kinda want a do-over of some of the last few years. But life doesn’t work that way.


So for now, I'm hunkering down. Regrouping. Trying to stay safe and sort some stuff out.


Stay safe everyone. Stay well.

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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Good News

As part of my job, I have to proof concert programs for donor credits. All I am really supposed to do is check the first few pages to make sure everything is in order, and every one is credited appropriately. I have always taken it one step further, and I end up proofing the whole program. I feel like if I can’t attend the concert, the least I can do is read the notes and biographies of the performers, because I always learn something new.

Case in point. I was reading the program for an upcoming concert featuring new pieces (written within the last 10 years) from young international and national composers. While I may not understand some of the technical/tonal debates, it is still fascinating to read about the process of composition from the point of view of the composer. This particular program featured a piece based on Godspell, a setting of five unpublished poems by New Yorker Philip Levine. As much as I read, I am not usually a fan of poetry, but in this case, one of the poems struck a chord with me (if you’ll excuse a pun). I thought I’d share my discovery with you.

Note: In Old English (and in the Bible) the word ‘Godspell’ means ‘good news.’

Gospel
About life I can say nothing. Instead,
half blind, I wander the woods while
a west wind picks up in the trees
clustered above. The pines make
a music like no other, rising and
falling like a distant surf at night
that calms the darkness before
first light. How weightless
words are when nothing will do.


© Philip Levine

Philip Levine is one of the best-known contemporary American poets, the winner of a National Book Award (What Work Is, 1991) and of a Pulitzer Prize (The Simple Truth, 1994), and the author of more of a dozen books of poetry.

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