for Ulli Sir Jesse
Surrounded with falling,
you choose joy.
Given a minor tune,
you change a note
and the melody, now major,
finds new gaps
in the day’s dark staves.
Given a lump, you dissolve it
with tears. In the face of loss,
you smile and offer your hand.
In the hail, you sing. In the dark,
you sing. And all along the trail,
you sing and invite the world
to sing with you. I will sing
with you. Though I weep,
I will sing with you. Though
you move father away, I sing
with you, I sing with you
wherever you go, I sing
because that is what we do,
we who know harmony
as one of the ladders
to god, we who feel how
the song sings us, and because
you have taught us
so beautifully, we sing,
though it sounds perhaps
more like gurgling tonight,
more like keening, or wailing,
we sing, gonna rise up, we sing.