Cantata for a More Hopeful Tomorrow
Damien Geter
I. FEAR
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen
J.S. Bach – BWV 12;
Text by Salomo Franck & Megan Levad
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen,
Weeping, lamentation, worry, despair,
Angst und Not
Fear and need
Sind der Christen Tränenbrot,
Are the Christain’s bread of tears,
Die das Zeichen Jesu tragen.
Who carry the sign of Jesus.
First we sought to tame the fire, the flood,
the mountain and its bear.
We worshipped where we walked,
and praised each day.
We learned: look everywhere
for danger –
poison berry, poison charm;
sudden precipice. The stranger.
For we are born to trouble,
we are built for trouble.
We seek, we seek,
we seek and reach.
All our cares become shadows
on a long day.
All our cares become sorrows
as the sparks fly.
We seek to tame the fire, the flood,
the mountain and its bear,
the poison, the precipice. The stranger.
Look everywhere: the deepest stars,
your innermost,
the farthest cry,
the closest breath.
All our cares become sorrows
as the sparks fly.
All our cares become shadows
on a long day.
For we are born to trouble,
for we are made for trouble –
we are made to seek,
and try, and dream.
III. BREATHE
Text by Aminata Sei
With effortless, simple repetitions,
No complex expectations shrouded by worry,
No disappointments imagined,
Just breathe.
Then interruptions,
Devastations leaving the world feeling sorry,
Questions, uncertainty emerge,
Now we don’t know how to breathe.
Standing in confidence of our decisions.
Shaken, with little hope to carry,
Movement halted, emotions stirred,
We must continue to breathe.
Go back to the parts of you that house ambitions.
Where you’ll find your glory,
The drive to endure.
Learn again to just breathe.
V. HOPE
“Continuities”
Text by Walt Whitman
[From a talk I had lately with a German spiritualist.]
Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost, / No
birth, identity, form—no object of the world. / Nor
life, nor force, nor any visible thing; / Appearance
must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain.
/ Ample are time and space—ample the fields
of Nature. / The body, sluggish, aged, cold—the
embers left from earlier fires, / The light in the
eye grown dim, shall duly flame again; / The sun
now low in the west rises for mornings and for
noons continual; / To frozen clods ever the spring’s
invisible law returns, / With grass and flowers and
summer fruits and corn.
Clouds
Riley Skinner
Clouds in the spring time
Soft petals bloom
Yearning for water
Yearning for sunlight
Precious rain falls down
If I could only feel the cool breeze lifting off of the river
If I could only feel the grass beneath my feet
I could feel at ease
I am a witness to beauty
I will stand in awe
Take my breath away
To take in the simplest change of light
To notice the curvature of the Earth
To fathom what the water that gives us life
To seek out the small things
Sounds of the ocean
like a beating heart
Like you are a blossom
Yearning for water
Yearning for sunlight
Virtues of Resistance: Community
Tara Mack
We are each other’s harvest: we are each other’s business: we are each other’s magnitude and bond.
- Gwendolyn Brooks
Let us be patient with one another,
And even patient with ourselves.
We have a long, long way to go.
So let us hasten along the road,
The road of human tenderness and generosity.
Groping, we may find one another’s hands in the dark.
- Emily Greene Balch
Lost
Klo Garoute
¿Donde están ahora?
¿Donde están?
Los que están perdidos
No están aquí. ¿Donde están ahora?
¿Donde están?
Los que están perdidos
No pueden contestar.
Where are they now?
Where are they?
Those who are lost
They are not here. Where are they now?
Where are they?
Those who are lost
They cannot answer.
1. Form N-400 Erasures
Niina Pollari
Do you
Have
awful
association s
Have you been in
total
terror
Yes/No
if you
EVER claim in writing or any other way
to
have no
country
are you
confined
2. N-400 (an erasure)
Laurel Chen
i.
notice: any immigration
notice: hearing
notice: see
notice: you
ii.
to the immigrant :
homeland is
a process
delayed.
iii.
fingerprints disposable
a number unpermitted
immigrants: are
all of the above
iv.
about the United States:
do not
support
the criminal history
v.
you are what
you have
abandoned
vi.
identify: alien
copy: self
vii.
separate your
open wounds in the
process
viii.
verify:
all has
been destroyed
ix.
naturalization can not capture
your free
can not level
your personal
for political
x.
this application simplified
is persecution of
your own safety
to ensure social security
xi.
reschedule
reschedule
reschedule
reschedule
a time
time
time
again time
time
date and
time
xii.
resubmit
resubmit
resubmit
xiii.
Please
xiv.
you will
never
belong
3. change [y]our Country
Melissa Dunphy
you Are Home
this IS where you live now
Home
your space
Your Time
Your History
How many have been
persecuted
occupied
arrested
detained charged
Have Been
Failed
lied to
removed, excluded
deported
but you did not
f al t e r
you
are willing
you
are true
release
re form
prepare
S t a n d Firm
you
are the best of u s
you will b re a the
free