This poem keeps regenerating and appearing in new forms and contexts!

Here is one recitation at Stadsklooster in Utrecht for Vocal Lab 3.0 (organized by Componisten Werkplaats).

Accompaniment: Diederik van der Laag

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I hope you grow (2018)

 

I hope you grow

Like the pine tree next to our house

That stretches a little taller than the first-floor roof

 

I hope you are nourished by the storms that roll by

I hope the chaos feeds your soul

And shakes the dirt and dead needles from your branches

 

I hope you find friends who pour water at your roots

And laugh around your base

Friends who you can shelter from the rain

And I hope you find equals

Whom you race alongside to reach the sky.

 

I hope you grow strong enough to bear the burden of snow

Through the summer months

When you can’t believe you’re still carrying this heavy load in April

And you gracefully let it rest atop you

Until it melts one sweltering week and you sigh with relief

 

I hope you nurture yourself

Bringing in all the sweetness and harshness alike from your environment

And transforming it into fuel for your every cell

Your every fiber of being

I hope you find fuel in fire storms and stillness, sunlight flaming through the icicles that cling to you like thousands of extra fingers

 

I hope you bend and lean with life

I hope the clouds carry away your strife

I hope you are strong

I hope you are soft

I hope you put down roots

And learn to lean into the Earth

As you push your way into the sky