Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Rhythms of Resilience
Poetry
To the Road
By Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
From: Lyrics of Love and Laughter (1903)
Cool is the wind, for the summer is waning,
Who’s for the road?
Sunflecked and soft,
where the dead leaves are raining,
Who’s for the road?
Knapsack and alpenstock press hand and shoulder,
Prick of the brier and roll of the boulder;
This be your lot while the seasons grow older;
Who’s for the road?
Up and away in the hush of the morning,
Who’s for the road?
Vagabonds we, all conventions ascorning,
Who’s for the road?
Music of warblers so merrily singing,
Draughts from the rill from the roadside upspringing,
Nectar of grapes from the vines lowly swinging,
Who’s for the road?
Now ev’ry house is a hut or a hovel,
Come to the road!
Mankind and moles in the dark love to grovel,
But to the road.
Throw off the loads that are bending you double;
Love is for life, only labor is trouble;
Truce to the town who’s best gift is a bubble:
Come to the road!
The Wider View
By R.H. Grenville (1917-2017)
In my childhood I was wont
to see the horizon as a boundary,
The sky as roof, the wood as wall,
my world as intimate and small.
But as I learned of other places,
loftier heights and wider spaces,
The wonder in my spirit grew to match the fresh,
unfolding view.
I used to think of life as breath,
a measured span from birth to death,
With Time the stern horizon line
to mark day’s ending and decline.
But now I see beyond confusion,
all boundaries are but illusion;
That love’s vast luminous creation
can tolerate no separation.
There is no barrier nor wall between us
and the All-in-All.
There’s always more to do and be.
You can’t exhaust infinity.
Citadel
By Virginia Brasier (1910-1994)
From: The Reflective Rib : and other poems (1955)