Saturday, September 25, 2010


Music is the memory bank for finding one's way about the world.

-- Bruce Chatwin
(in Divine Sparks,
edited by Karen Speerstra)

Saturday, September 18, 2010


Music speaks of Platonic truth --
the ideal river
rather than the polluted reality,
love as we dream it
rather than we experience it,
grief noble and uplifting
rather than our distracted weeping.
It is necessary to our survival and our sanity.

-- Pam Brown
(in Music Lovers Quotations,
edited by Helen Exley)

Saturday, September 11, 2010

“A Prayer for Peace”


Dona nobis pacem.
Grant us peace.

I prayed for peace within myself
And I was given fear
That I might learn openness
That I might learn faith
That I might learn hope
And that peace begins in my heart.

I prayed for peace with my neighbor
And I was given strife
That I might learn tolerance
That I might learn forgiveness
That I might learn compassion
And that peace begins in my heart.

We prayed for peace between nations
And we were given war
That we might learn respect for life
That we might learn justice
That we might learn a shared vision
And that peace begins in our hearts.

Dona nobis pacem.
Grant us peace.

-- Carla J. Giomo
(written in response to the events of 9/11;
available as SATB choral anthem from










Saturday, September 4, 2010


The flute of the Infinite is played without ceasing,
and its sound is love:
When love renounces all limits,
it reaches truth.
How widely the fragrance spreads!
It has no end, nothing stands in its way.
The form of this melody is bright like a million suns:
incomparably sounds the vina,
the vina of the notes of truth.

-- Kabir
(in Songs of Kabir,
translated by Rabindranath Tagore
and Evelyn Underhill)