Golden Callings (2012) was commissioned by Lorelei Ensemble (Beth Willer, music director), who premiered it on May 18–19, 2012. The work is available in its original scoring for SSAA voices or in an alternate arrangement for SATB voices.

Golden Callings
Elizabeth Kirschner, 2010

On the silky hillocks of the sea, peach-
scented rays are splayed against turquoise waters
while sky lifts its heavy lids.
I walk along the trail, surrender
to melodies that move through solitude, dream
of the elegant bones inside birds, their tiny
voice boxes, golden callings, rising and falling
at once. The compost in my wounds
composes me as does the rich
roux of sorrow that burrows into my soul’s
creamy marrow. I see wintry, ghostly cocoons
pinned like corsages on low brush, red,
red berries impaled upon very broken
branches. Within the spun strands, the promise
of flurrying wings and soon, soon,
my wounds, your wounds and our very
brokenness will be what awakens us greatly.
To go on means to go in, give in, to rise
and fall at once because that’s what grace does.
Resist at first, if you must, but then hold on.

Copyright © 2010  Elizabeth Kirschner (b. 1955); Used with permission.