Loam

“Loam” is the third movement from a larger work, “Canticles of Crimson,” that is scored for chorus and soprano solo. This movement focuses on the reality of our mortality and life’s brevity and our intimate connection to the cycles of growth, dissolution, and renewal. This and the work titled “Your Eyes and the Valley” may also be performed as a two-movement suite.

Loam
from Cornhuskers

In the loam we sleep,
In the cool moist loam,
To the lull of years that pass
And the break of stars,

From the loam, then,
The soft warm loam,
We rise:
To shape of rose leaf,
Of face and shoulder.

We stand, then,
To a whiff of life,
Lifted to the silver of the sun
Over and out of the loam
A day.