We Clasp the Hands

We Clasp the Hands was written for the Aurora Chorus of Portland, Oregon, to celebrate the group as a welcoming and empowering community as well as marking their 25th Anniversary. I am indebted to Artistic Director Joan Szymko for finding the perfect text; it is excerpted from Wendell Berry’s poetic essay “Healing,” found in his volume What Are People For?

…we clasp the hands of those who go before us,
and the hands of those who come after us;
we enter the little circle of each other’s arms,
and the larger circle of lovers
whose hands are joined in a dance,
and the larger circle of all creatures,
passing in and out of life,
who move also in a dance,
to a music so subtle and vast
that no ear hears it
except in fragments.

Copyright © 2010 by Wendell Berry, from What Are People For?
Reprinted by permission of Counterpoint.