What the Last Evening Will Be Like
You’re sitting at a small bay window
in an empty café by the sea.
It’s nightfall, and the owner is locking up, though you’re still hunched over the radiator, which is slowly losing warmth.
Now you’re walking down to the shore
to watch the last blues fading on the waves. You’ve lived in small houses, tight spaces— the walls around you kept closing in—
but the sea and the sky were also yours
No one else is around to drink with you from the watery fog, shadowy depths. You’re alone with the whirling cosmos. Goodbye, love, far away, in a warm place. Night is endless here, silence infinite.
Psalm 107:23-27, 29-30
23 Qui descendunt mare in navibus facientes operationem in aquis multis
24 Ipsi viderunt opera Domini et mirabilia eius in profundo
25 Dixit et setit spiritus procellae et exaltati sunt fluctus eius
26 Ascendunt usque ad caelos et descendunt usque ad abyssos anima eorum in malis tabescebat
28 Et clamaverunt ad Dominum cum tribularentur et de necessitatibus eorum eduxit eos
29 Et statuit procellam eius in auram et siluerunt fluctus eius
30 Et laetati sunt quia siluerunt et deduxit eos in portum voluntatis eorum
23 They that go down to the sea in ships, doing business in the great waters:
24 These have seen the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.
25 He said the word, and there arose a storm of wind: and the waves thereof were lifted up.
26 They mount up to the heavens, and they go down to the depths: their soul pined away with evils.
28 And they cried to the Lord in their affliction: and he brought them out of their distresses.
29 And he turned the storm into a breeze: and its waves were still.
30 And they rejoiced because they were still: and he brought them to the haven which they wished for.
Commissioned and premiered by Halifax Camerata Singers (Jeff Joudrey, Artistic Director) for their 35th Anniversary Season.