Thursday Text: Sonnet LXXXIX

The text of one of the Nocturnes by Morten Lauridsen is from Pablo Neruda's Sonnet LXXXIX. It really moved me when I heard it.

When I die, I want your hands upon my eyes:
I want the light and the wheat of your beloved hands
to pass their freshness over me one more time:
I want to feel the gentleness that changed my destiny.

I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep,
I want your ears to still hear the wind,
I want you to smell the scent of the sea we both loved,
and to continue walking on the sand we walked on.

I want all that I love to keep on living,
and you whom I loved and sang above all things
to keep flowering into full bloom,

so that you can touch all that my love provides you,
so that my shadow may pass over your hair,
so that all may know the reason for my song.

Thursday Text: Sure On This Shining Night

I know it's a day late, but I wanted to post about a poem that we heard recently in the form of a song by Morten Lauridsen. The poem is called Sure On This Shining Night, and it's by James Agee. Beautiful.

Sure on this shining night
Of star made 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.

My posting may be a bit sporadic over the next week, but I do have some ideas for things to come!