This poem was commissioned by the incomparable Kings Singers.  They had commissioned Uzbek-born Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin to write a new piece for their 2011 tour, and she had trouble finding an appropriate text.  I happened to be in London hanging out with the King’s Singers during the Summer of 2010, and the gents asked me to supply a text for Elena.

We spoke at length via email, then via Skype (there are a lot of hours between Lawrence, Kansas and Sydney, Australia!) and agreed on the theme of a river reflecting on the many ages of its life.  She wanted a multi-movement text, one which takes the primeval river through its interaction with mankind, through a drought (which the Murray had been experiencing for some time) and ultimately through the return of rain.

I supplied her with a preliminary text, which she used as a springboard of inspiration to write a fascinating, rhythmic, insanely complicated six-part work which used very little of my original text.  MY job was then to remake the text to fit the new music she had composed.  I cannot tell you how difficult that was!

The King’s Singers premiered “The River’s Lament” on July 7, 2011, at Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London. 

Wow!

The River’s Lament

© 2011 Charles Anthony Silvestri

I.

I am born where clouds descend

To kiss the mountain top

The sky is my father

The earth is my mother

I gather together

With fingers spread out

The waters that fall from

The storm and the thunder

With water that flows through

The caverns below

A trickle at the melting snow line

The golden sunlight flashes down

I dance along the the rocky creekbeds

As ever faster down I flow

One by one my fingers gather

Merging into wider streams

Waters drawn from every mountain

Mingled in a silver flow

Twisting, turning, serpentine,

I run through quiet, sacred groves

The ancient trees untouched and tall

All seem to whisper softly

I rush toward the sleeping valley

Carving canyon cliffs

Playing catch-me-if-you-can

Against the rising sun

Ever swifter now I hasten

Plunging down the granite cliff

Where mist and sun create a rainbow

Soaring high above the falls

My swift cold current

And warmer eddies still

Are home and life to all creation:

Dancing otter, digging wombat

Buzzing insect, wading bird

All come to me

For I am Water

I am the Glassway

For I am the Life-Bearer/Bringer

I am a River

Wide and Mighty!

II.

Dinga dinga dinga

Steamer bells are ringing

Breaking in the silence

Sooty smoke is rising

Covering the dawn

Clacky paddle steamers

Froth the busy waters

As they daily jostle

Barging heavy goods

Up and down the (teeming) valley

Industry and trade

From the spreading delta

To(ward) the falls

Singing stevedores on bust quays

Heave the crates and bales and load the barrels

Laughing children play along the muddy banks

Skipping stones break the glassy surface of the water

Hand in hand young lovers stroll

Beside the mill wheel ever-turning

Among the (wild) flowers

I am He...

He Who Flows...

River...

Mighty...

Up and down the valley

Teeming up and down

Spreading from the delta

To the Falls

Up and down the valley

Bustling down they spread

Industry and trade

Above the falls

Dinga dinga dinga

I am ever-carrying

I am ever-flowing

From the delta to the falls

Ever more extending

I am...

III.

I am diminished…

Snowmelt streams no longer gather

At the granite falls

The lake is low now

Water retreating

Revealing rocks turned white

Beneath the scorching sun

I am diminished…

Fish are few

The wombats gone

The eyes of men grow deep

I am diminished…

On the muddy banks

The grasses wither

Parched and dead

I am diminished…

All is still across the valley

I’m still a River

Wide and mighty

Flowing through stone

In caverns below

All is still…

I am diminished…

IV.

Drip drop, plip plop, spit spat, pit pat, tip tap

Storm clouds billowing

Heaven opens, and rain returns

Sacred water

Resurrection,

Healing balm

Kiss the mountaintop

Flow of water

Flow of time

Ever flowing, I awaken

Splashing, dancing

I am born again

Skipping, rushing over the falls

(Flowing through the valley)

Healing rain returns

(Rushing to the delta)

Much has changed

(The rain returns)

Beckoning otter and bird

(The rain returns)

Insects and mammals return

(The rain returns)

Leaping over granite falls

Bringing life to the world

Hand in hand they stroll   

(Everything has changed)  

(Nothing is the same)

Beside the Old Mill Inn      

(I remember mill wheel turning)

Painters try to capture my meander

Steamer now is still     

(Everything has changed)  

(Nothing is the same)

Casino on the Quays  

(Paddle steamers on the water)

Shoppers bustle   

(Quays for cargo, crates, barrels)

Where once were crates and barrels

When the rain returns

I am born again

Although much has changed

Yet I still remain

I am a river, wide and mighty

Twisting and turning, flowing through time

I am a river, son of the earth and sky

I am a river, wide and mighty,

Twisting and turning, flowing through time

I am a river, flowing through eternity

I am a river and I flow forever (river wide and mighty)

I know where I'm going and always arrive at the sea (river wide and mighty)

That which you do to me you also do to yourself (river wide and mighty)

Ancient and elemental is my power (ancient and elemental)

I am the thread that binds the sky to the earth

I am the thread that binds the earth to the sea

I am the thread that binds all creation

I am a river endlessly flowing

I am the bringer of life to the valley

I am a river wide and mighty...

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