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Dale Trumbore
Dale Trumbore
The Once Invisible Garden
A heartfelt meditation on a life well-lived.
SATB Chorus & Piano
Poet Laura Foley writes often about the balance between light and darkness, sorrow and joy. In The Once Invisible Garden, the narrator wonders at inheriting “this particular version” of their life, with all of its beautiful, ordinary facets: three dogs asleep at their feet, blooming flowers, and a partner whose house has become a shared home. To confront this immense gratitude means acknowledging the potential for what else might have been, and that bittersweet note informs this setting, encouraging us to find these resonant moments in our own lives as often as we can.
Composer’s Notes
The Once Invisible Garden is commissioned by and dedicated to Choral Arts Ensemble, Rochester, MN to honor the retirement of Rick Kvam, Artistic Director, and Jan Kvam, Accompanist.
-Dale Trumbore
Text
How did I come to be
this particular version of me,
and not some other, this morning
of purple delphiniums blooming
like royalty—destined
to meet these three dogs
asleep at my feet, and not others—
this soft summer morning,
sitting on her screened porch
become ours, our wind chime
singing of wind and time,
yellow-white digitalis
feeding bees and filling me—
and more abundance to come:
basil, tomatoes, zucchini.
What luck or fate, instinct,
or grace brought me here?—
in shade, beneath day-blind stars,
a soft, summer morning,
seeing with my whole being
the real Eden,
love made visible.
—Laura Foley
First published in Sheila-Na-Gig.
Reprinted with permission.
$2.65 per licensed PDF
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