Music of the Week

I've played both of these pieces in orchestra, and they are quite fun.

Picture of the Week

So, I've added something new. In addition to Music of the week and Poetry for Thought, I'll give you an image that I consider interesting. No, I don't promise one every week, but I honestly will try. ^.^

"Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts." ~Genesis 2:1

Poetry for Thought

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not take them both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other, just as fair,
Ad having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really just the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden back.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I---
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

~~~Robert Frost

Music of the Week

Two of my favorites.
 Have a wonderful Christmas, everyone!

Poetry for Thought

The Children's Hour

Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations
That is known as the Children's Hour.

I hear in the chamber above me
The patter of little feet,
The sound of a door that is opened,
And voices soft and sweet.

From my study I see in the lamplight,
Descending the broad hall stair,
 Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
 And Edith with golden hair.
 
 A whisper, and then a silence:
 Yet I know by their merry eyes
 They are plotting and planning together
 To take me by surprise.
 
 A sudden rush from the stairway,
 A sudden raid from the hall!
 By three doors left ungaurded
 They enter my castle wall!

 They climb up into my turret
O'er the arms and back of my chair;
 If I try to escape, they surround me;
 They seem to be everywhere.

 They almost devour me with kisses,
 Their arms about me entwine,
 Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen
 In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!

 Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
 Because you have scaled the wall,
 Such an old mustache as I am
 Is not a match for you all!

 I have you fast in my fortress,
 And will not let you depart,
 But put you down into the dungeon
 In the round-tower of my heart.

 And there I will keep you forever,
 Yes, forever and a day,
 Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
 And moulder in dust away!

 ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Music of the Week

HSMA's Symphonic Band played this piece, and I got to sit up in the balcony and watch while waiting for my choir's next performance. 'Twas quite interesting, though not as 'moving' as orchestra.

Poetry for Thought

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm,
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

~E. Dickinson

Feeling the Brightness of the Season

Yes, I am. And the Inspiration. I've always loved singing carols under the stars in the crisp, icy air. Last night I think that it was the stars themselves that were singing, and if only the world could get quiet enough it would hear them.

Christmas Song

The Stars are ringing

Hear them singing

Rehearse the ancient words in verse

Each beam is bringing

In its singing

Stories of the Heavens’ glories

Snow is glistening

And is listening

Both reflecting and directing

To believers

Glad receivers

Bright eternal light.

Music of the Week

One of my very favorite pieces.

Poetry for Thought

The Touch of Master's Hand

 

'Twas battered and scarred,
And the auctioneer thought it
hardly worth his while
To waste his time on the old violin,
but he held it up with a smile.

"What am I bid, good people", he cried,
"Who starts the bidding for me?"
"One dollar, one dollar, Do I hear two?"
"Two dollars, who makes it three?"
"Three dollars once, three dollars twice, going for three,"

But, No,
From the room far back a gray bearded man
Came forward and picked up the bow,
Then wiping the dust from the old violin
And tightening up the strings,
He played a melody, pure and sweet
As sweet as the angel sings.

The music ceased and the auctioneer
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said "What now am I bid for this old violin?"
As he held it aloft with its' bow.

"One thousand, one thousand, Do I hear two?"
"Two thousand, Who makes it three?"
"Three thousand once, three thousand twice,
Going and gone", said he.

The audience cheered,
But some of them cried,
"We just don't understand."
"What changed its' worth?"
Swift came the reply.
"The Touch of the Masters Hand."

And many a man with life out of tune
All battered with bourbon and gin
Is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd
Much like that old violin

A mess of pottage, a glass of wine,
A game and he travels on.
He is going once, he is going twice,
He is going and almost gone.

But the Master comes,
And the foolish crowd never can quite understand,
The worth of a soul and the change that is wrought
By the Touch of the Masters' Hand.

~~~Myra Brooks Welch

Combining Two Things into One Ridicules Activity.

Cello Wars.
(StarWars parody)

Music of the Week

Poetry for Thought

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
  Weep, and you weep alone.
For the old sad earth must borrow its mirth,
   But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
  Sigh, it is lost in the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
   But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
   Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
   But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
  Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
  But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
   Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
  But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
  For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
  Through the narrow aisles of pain.

~Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Happy Thanksgiving!

Poetry for Thought

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us---don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

~~~ Emily Dickinson

On the Lack of Regularity

So, as you have noticed, there tend to be rather *ahem* large gaps between blog posts. My consistency has been lacking. But that is going to change (yeah, right). From now on, I shall do my best to post twice a week; early in the week with a poem or quote of interest from a favorite writer, and later in the week with a musical piece that I find worth listening to. And of course, my random ramblings between or with the two, a sample of which I have ready for you today.

Time and Eternity

 Time and Eternity.

What the two have in common is that we must be outside of the one in order to be in the other.

They do not reflect each other; they are opposing forces. In the one, there is a sole direction to travel in; the other spans all directions and holds no limitations.

Time is like a sphere; we can only see what is within it. Eternity is everywhere, except in time, and does not bring unforeseen things and dark horizons.

When walking the line of time, we can only be at one point at any given moment. We cannot be in more than one place at one time.

Time can seem like a useful servant to mortal man in certain contexts, but of this day it remains a master over us; a hard master that tears away at us. We have no way of combating this force.

However, we have been promised freedom from this ever-present task master. Once snatched beyond Time’s threshold and out of its domain, we will never enter it again.

Eternity is more than just forever; it does not continue to the end of anything. Beginnings and Endings do not exist in the boundless plains of glory.

Now our minds and bodies are still captives of Time. We cannot function or imagine without it; we cannot see beyond the sphere. But someday, when there are no days left, the sphere will be done away with, and there will be Eternity; no moving, or traveling, just being, being at our Savior’s side.

Just a bit of prose that I wrote (while I supposed to be studying American Literature. Ehe).


And now, a piece that my Orchestra is working on:

Oi, I'm still alive!

Yes, I have returned from the edge of the universe. Nice place, that is. Lots of people like to hang out there.

Anywho, I figured that since I haven't posted in such a long time, I might as well make this a long post, filled with lots of stuff. (Stuff? Can't I be more descriptive than that?)


First off, I joined a new orchestra and choir this year. Quit interesting. I recently found out that the choir is going on tour this spring, and that the end destination is Niagara Falls.


I have been there once before with my family, and the view is absolutely stunning.

Thousand of gallons of water rushing over the cliff with a chorus of thunderous roars. Quite a beautiful piece of God's creation, eh?

Add that to the fact that we get to travel through Ohio, Pennsilvania, and New York singing the entire way (okay, maybe not the entire way) and you've got quite the exciting tour. (Not to mention that the band and orchestra people are coming too. They'll make it really interesting)

Secondly, NaNoWriMo is coming up. The title, if you know what it means, explains itself. I am busy dreaming up outlines and preparing for this thirty-day adventure of writing.

Thirdly, I am typing this entire thing with one hand, as I am holding the baby with the other.

D. Er, fourthly. I have been doing a bit of writing lately, some for school and some just because. I wrote a cause-effect type essay a little while back, which I will show you in a moment. First, I must explain that I Do Not like to write these types of essays, being as I'm not very good at arguing in a logical manner. Please bear with me.

*Ahem* 

The thing:

Cause-Effect Essay:

Ripping out our Roots: The Result of Evolution

In 1859 Charles Darwin published a book with the title “On the Origin of Species”. This book contained Darwin’s thoughts on the beginning of life. He explained why he thought it possible for the creatures of the Earth to have descended from a common ancestor, and that it was logical for life to exist on its own, without the presence of an intelligent designer. He revoked his belief in the Creator on behalf of his studies. This book struck society as an atomic bomb would. Over the years the scientific circle came to accept the hypothesis of evolution as plausible; society decided that they were better off without a creator. However, when they shut their eyes to God, they also lost the foundation that held life as they knew it together: the moral law.

The moral law is something that makes everything from business transactions to everyday interactions work. Morality instructs us not to steal, lie, cheat, etcetera. It gives us the ability to put our trust in one another, because each of us is under the same obligation to hold up our end of the deal. The moral law insists that justice be served, corruption snuffed out, hypocrisy prodded into the light. When the Creator was undermined, so was the moral law that He put into place. If God is a product of the imagination, then doesn’t that make the definitions of “right” and “wrong” subject to the imagination as well?

Humans lose their obligation to even try to stay in line. Society, with a little smidgen of Christian influence, may as a whole try to cling to “do not lie, do not steal, etcetera.” But when a majority of their members begin to slide downwards at a devastating rate, the rest can’t help but follow. It becomes everyone for himself in the mad dash for a pleasurable, satisfying lifestyle. Why throw yourself out by trying to do what’s “right”?

With right and wrong on the fritz, things like abortion can become acceptable in society’s eyes. God tells us that an unborn baby is a precious life form. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” But since God has been dethroned in the hearts of the people, they can slide around with excuses. 

“It isn’t convenient for me.” 

  “It’s my body, I can do what I like with it.” 

“It hasn’t passed a certain stage in development. It isn’t really alive.” 

Wholesale murder for the sake of pleasure and convenience is now acceptable. Other destructive things like homosexuality, substance abuse, and prostitution are easily able to find a fashionable place in society. 

When they gave up God, people also gave up the moral law and ripped out the cornerstone that held their known world together. They relinquished their souls, murdered their consciences, and poisoned their minds. Every new generation that sprouts up is submerged even deeper in filth than the last. Without God, they have nowhere to go but down. Charles Darwin undoubtedly did not foresee these things when he first drafted “On the Origin of Species”, but they still occurred as a result of his and others’ handiwork. Without God, there is no true “right and wrong”, and society can only continue to plunge.

Now, I'm not sure that I put 'the moral law' across as I should have. But, ehe, as I explained before, I stink at arguing.

Now, something else that I wrote on an out-of-the-blue inspiration:

Awaken Life

Bring in the thunder

Rush my senses

Fill the empty depression

Give me more than impression

I’m tired of dreaming

I want to live

Cast me into dark despair

Flush me through the fire

I want more than thrilling tales

That spin my eager head

Don’t tickle my desires

Thrust the sword into my hand

Let me breathe the stable air

Of foreign, far-off lands

I’m tired of lilting fancies

I want to live

More dark than I imagined

Let the water start to run

Make the questions chill my blood

And my answers dangerous ones

No outcome that my eyes can see

Each path is terribly twisted so

Folded up in some embrace

A captor I could never know

Turn my head with bursts of fright

Fling me to the solid earth

Bring alive my deepest nightmares

Matches that I’ve ne’er faced

I’m tired of seeing masks

I want to live

Make Death my one companion

I’m apace with all the time

Bring alive the passionate feeling

That was breathless for so long

Make me see behind the glass

Explore the soul beyond the face

Catch distortions in the song

Give to love its wanting grace

Make all things eternal blaze

Make insight mine, not the naïve

Make mercy spill in silver drops

Tears that cover all disgrace

Mold my soul to spring and soar

Inspire my voice to take on wings

Reflect the stars across my path

Instruct me to live

I want to live.

Strange things abound in my head, I suppose. Well, there you have it.

Auditions coming up!

Auditions for Orchestra are coming up, and this is the piece that I am auditioning with. Well, half of it, anyway. I have quite a bit of practicing up ahead! Wish me luck!

Poetry

New poem:

      Best Friends       

We wandered the world

The daring dreamers

Adventures untold

No want of deceivers

Bonded by trials

We held out our own

Weary exiles

By darkness overthrown

When darkness had passed

We smiled in the sunlight

Only to be cast

Back into the night

And though we learned

To sing through the storm

Always we yearned

For light’s returning morn

Once we came through

The fire and the tempest

Finally tried and true

We conquered our test

Even though now

We must part our ways

I can’t imagine how

We'll separately end our days

We are sisters at heart

We stood the entire way through

Though our hands may fall apart

I swear I won't forget you.

Off to camp I go!

Okay peeps (First time I've ever used the word in this setting, hehe) I'm off to horse camp tomorrow. That means saddle sores (or rather, being saddle sore) and everything for the next three days. Hopefully everything will go well. :)

Poetry

A few poems that I've written lately:

Tears

Tears have many forms

They, the pale ones with many voices

Some come oftener than others, a reflection

Of the vessel’s heart’s choices.

Tears of grief, cold, clear diamonds

Priceless treasures that mend the heart torn

Marking the deeper ruts of the road

Showing the pain of they that mourn

Tears of bitterness, anger, hate

Heaping toils, spurning love

Burning ashes, scorching burden

Call for healing from above.

Tears of joy, glistening starlight

Drops of light to those that see

Silver spangles, splashes of bliss

In pleasure greet reality.

Beyond the Edge of Recall

                                                                                                                                       

Beyond the Edge of Recall,

Where the dreary shadows lie;

Where the passing music shall fall,

And the fleeting dreams shall die.

Beyond the Edge of Recall,

Where the words that should have been said

To that heart more precious than all,

Lie powerless, forgotten, and dead.

Beyond the Edge of Recall,

Where the sages strain to reach;

Where Remembrance sleeps in her empty hall,

And ne’er wakens again to teach.

What Do You See?

What do you see, little one

When I lift you up so high?

“I see the fleecy lambs, Father

That gallop across the sky.”

What do you see, little one

When I sweep you down below?

“I see the gentle waves, Father

In their graceful dance so slow.”

What do you see, little one

When I set you in land once fair?

“I see the pained man, Father

With burden too great to bear.”

And what do you see, little one

What with this burden was done?

“You gave the cure, Father

By sending Your only Son.” 

The Sun, Maybe? Weird poem. 

Dawn o’er the Earth

 

Dawn o’er the Earth

Oh breath of the sky

Give Light her birth

Release her to fly.

Swing down below

Oh breath of the sky

Sweep away Snow

Make fire stand high.

Stand over us

Oh breath of the sky

Troubled as thus

That men fall and die.

Dawn o’er the Earth

Oh breath of the sky

Spread out your mirth

Where dying men lie.

And know this, lest you scorn

That you will come to such.

 

Shattered in the Sky

Breaking dawn; shattered in the sky
Rain of fire from above
Watch the shattered tears I cry
Struck from mortal's broken love

This shadowed life shall end in death
Then flee to the triumphant skies
This final, passing, heaving breath
Is really prayer in disguise.

This was inspired by a story that I read, Called To Dance in Chains by Silver Tokens (An online writer friend of mine). 

Remember

I’m leaving now
This breath of mine is spent
Time has ended for me.

I’d like to cling to you
For your sake I’d stay
But the messenger is calling.

Don’t weep so bitterly
Please listen to what I say
I want only one thing before I go.

A promise.

Remember me when you look up and see
Those stars burning bright.
When you’re afraid of the risk
Just please remember this---

I lost everything to gain you.

Promise me that you’ll go on
Don’t make my memory burn.
Remember that my life was beautiful
Don’t waste my only gift.

Remember me when you look up and see
Those stars burning bright.
When Time and Song have ended
And you have entered the night.

Don’t be afraid.
Try to be brave.
Remember that I’ve gone before you.

Remember that I've gone before you.

So as I leave this earth behind
And my bright eyes grow dim
Promise me that my memory
Will travel to the end.

You can’t forget this sacrifice
Your life was the original price
Remember that I lost everything
To gain you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New thingy here

Soooo, I've got myself a blog...I am totally new to this, and we'll just have to see what comes of it! XD I'll see what sort of stuff I can stick up here....