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Linda Studley

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What is a year but an unwieldy barge that drifts on a river of dreams? What is desire but a broken oar
that we use to stem the stream?

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What are words but a patchwork sail that occasionally catches a breeze? What is hope but a tattered chart
of strange, exotic seas?

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But the river is wide, and I'll sail my barge, I'll ply my oar, and search my charts,
I'll raise my sail at each passing wind
and if I see you flounder, friend,

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I'll heave to and lend a hand. Together we'll set sail and we'll drift into the setting sun, until another year is done.

Traduction de courtoisie:

PRORGAM NOTES

Linda Studley, poet of "the Voyage", writes: “The poem was written on December 24th, 2012. … It was a difficult year, and my beloved partner's brush with mortality shook my world and made me starkly aware of my own mortality, of the inescapable mortality of us all. I wanted to convey how, although life might be a struggle and although we do our best with what we have, we still are all made of hope and we can always find beauty, find peace, and reach out to others.”

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"The Voyage" was commissioned in 2023 by the Santa Fe Women's Ensemble under the direction of Linda Raney.