Finally On My Way To Yes

I am altered in some way by every song I write, but “Finally on My Way to Yes” has always felt like a turning point for me. Pesha Gertler’s short poem, “The Healing Time,” was like a blessing guiding me in a new musical and emotional direction. With ferocity and soulfulness, Gertler affirms that our missteps and mistakes are something to be cherished even if they have wounded us or others. In my case, I had long felt constrained by others’ expectations about the serious concert music I “ought” to be composing. “Finally on My Way to Yes” helped me learn to love my “old misdirections” as well as “those coded messages that send me down the wrong street again and again.”

It seems that everyone who encounters my song or Gertler’s poem hears something deeply individual and personal. Many members of the LGBTQ choir for whom I wrote this song heard their own coming out stories. Others have shared with me how it applies to drug addictions, suicide attempts, self-mutilation, racial identity, and the brutal losses that life eventually dishes out to all of us. Clearly “The Healing Time” taps into a deep something about what it is to be human. If my musical setting enriches this healing message in any way, I am grateful for that.

-Elizabeth Alexander