As midwinter shows the first hints of spring to come, I’m excitedly awaiting the premiere of Outer Space, Inner Light; I wrote the text in response to a choral score by the amazing Mari Alice Conrad, who wrote that score in response to a different poem, Book of Songs,* which was the title and text…
Tag: AMSewell poetry
Journey Song Score Now Available
Thrilled to say that the score of Journey Song is now out from Cypress Choral. https://cypresschoral.com/composers/mari-alice-conrad/journey-song/ Here’s the The World Premiere recorded in Toronto by commissioning choir Babel, under the baton of Elaine Choi. I first published a version of Journey Song in my 2009 collection, Fifth World Drum. Since then, I’ve played with it…
At First Light
Here’s Toronto’s Exultate Choir performing a morning meditation of mine, set for choir by Mari Alice Conrad. Her setting received the Stephen Chatman Award for student composition this spring at Podium, Canada’s national choral symposium, when this video was recorded. Here’s the original post of At First Light, which I wrote in May 2020 as…
Letter to Bob by mustang from my town
I wanna live on your street, Bob. Mind you, my such street is a whole village filled, not with envy and the boredom of blocked horizons, but with a sweet reciprocating danger line between us and the moose and the bears – so much for you, so much for me, and that traveling salesman of…
Poetry Video
Back in 2021, the Edmonton Poetry Festival responded to the pandemic by commissioning poets to create recordings of our work. This is my “virtual chapbook” (to quote Dr. Don Perkins): This video was recorded on GarageBand and iMovie, using my own music (tracks 2 and 3) and open source Apple Loops arranged by me (all…
The March This Time: a Collective Conversation
Looking back to 2014, it seems a kinder, gentler time. Dr. Cornett is a wise, genuine, passionate teacher who leads with spirit and vulnerability. Interesting to look back at his work, now that Dr. Jordan Peterson has risen to prominence; now that Me Too has had its moment, now that this kind of conversation feels…
Hey. Why you going to see the Pope, if you got such a chip on your shoulder, eh? Because this chip on my shoulder has a name. Because of the damned. Because of the rammed. The raped. The beaten. The killed. The blamed for their savage natures, they all had names. Because I remain. Because…
The Wild Keeps Quiet
Ducks write lines in water beaver testify all along shores Lakes like fingertips pressed into the living world for memory beyond our grasp And we wonder what they talked about, our ancestors, if We share tales of them all through trails pockmarked by horses, deer, dogs humans at leisure on foot and bike On our…
Choral Collaboration News
In just over 2 years of collaboration, Mari Alice Conrad has composed a number of remarkable settings for various of my poems. Beyond delighted to announce that Journey Song has arrived for purchase on Cypress Choral Music. Meanwhile, in Toronto, Exultate Choir will feature the Stephen Chatman Award winning At First Light on May 23rd…
Day 17: replete
One way or another, you get full. Mind and body pick up souvenirs some of your choosing, some say you have all the choice, but consider bystanders, and know we are moved by a larger hand. Still, it seems you can rank them when you wake one morning, replete and see the future, deer and…
April 14: Maundy Song
Mandatum novum do vobis said the Lord, the Romans say And Empire got so cosy as to make vernacular shorthand, Maundy, a nickname for the sacramental solemnity before the Sacrifice, the heart of its religion. What might the Mandatum Novum be today? Love one another still stands a statute all-healing when wielded but let us…
Prairiepomes 