
Texts & Translations
This Glorious Mountain Temple
Meijer Gardens July 2025
My Spirit is Uncaged by Paul Rardin
O to make the most Jubilant Song! Full of manhood, womanhood, infancy! Full of common employments–full of grain and trees. O the joy of my spirit–it is uncaged–it darts like lightning! It is not enough to have this globe or a certain time, I will have thousands of globes and all times. One’s–self I sing, a simple separate person; I celebrate myself, and sing myself; A song of the rolling earth, andof words according. I sing the body electric; I sing the song of companionship. Come said the Muse, Sing me a song no poet yet has chanted, Sing me the universal.
—Walt Whitman​​​
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Steeped in Burning Flowers
i will wade out by Eric Whitacre
i will wade out
till my thighs are steeped in burning flowers
i will take the sun in my mouth
and leap into the ripe air
alive with closed eyes
to dash against darkness
in the sleeping curves of my body
shall enter fingers of smooth mastery
with chasteness of sea-girls
will i complete the mystery of my flesh
i will rise after a thous
and years lipping flowers
and set my teeth in the silver of the moon.
—e.e. cummings
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As There are Flowers by Colin Britt
Still must the poet as of old,
In barren attic bleak and cold,
Starve, freeze, and fashion verses to
Such things as flowers and song and you;
Still as of old his being give
In Beauty’s name, while she may live,
Beauty that may not die as long
As there are flowers and you and song.
—Edna St. Vincent Millay
Under the Willow by Samuel Barber
Under the willow tree
Two doves cry, two doves cry.
Under the willow tree
Two doves cry, ah oh!
Where shall we sleep, my love?
Whither shallwefly?
Where shall we sleep, my love?
Whither shall we fly?
The wood has swallowed the moon.
The fog has swallowed the shore.
The green toad has swallowed
The key to my door.
—Gian Carlo Menotti
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These Roots Have Never Forgotten
We Shall Walk Through the Valley arr. Undine Smith Moore
Ah Lord, we shall walk, shall walk in peace.
We shall walk through the valley in peace,
We shall walk through the valley in peace.
If Jesus, himself shall be our leader,
We shall walk through the valley in peace.
Lord, we shall walk, shall walk in peace.
There will be no trials there,
There will be no trials there.
If Jesus, himself shall be our leader,
We shall walk through the valley in peace.
Lord, we shall walk, shall walk in peace.
—Traditional Spiritual
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In the Night We Shall Go In by Imant Raminsh
In the night we shall go in,
we shall go in to steal
a flowering, flowering branch.
We shall climb over the wall
in the darkness of the alien garden,
two shadows in the shadow.
Winter is not yet gone,
and the apple tree appears
suddenly changed into
a fragment of cascade stars.
In the night we shall go in
up to its trembling firmament,
and your hands, your little hands
and mine will steal the stars.
And silently to our house
in the night and the shadow,
perfume’s silent step,
and with starry feet,
the clear body of spring.
—Pablo Neruda tr. Donald D. Walsh
Snilla Patea by Bjørn Kåre Odde
Odde has composed a melody reminiscent of Norwegian folk music for the violin and paired it with a wordless choral accompaniment.
To Propagate a Home by Ayanna Woods
We must have uncommon strength to face the wound
and refuse to let it wither.
We must have uncommon faith to plunge our hands into the land
And nurture an abandoned place.
They say it’s a lost cause—
They haven’t seen the new roots
Weaving through the dark.
They say it isn’t worth it—
They haven’t watched with joy
As each new bud emerges.
When they cut off a branch that they say is dying,
It takes uncommon faith to grow.
These roots have never forgotten
How to grab hold of the soil.
This branch has never forgotten
How to reach up toward the sky.
—Ayanna Woods
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This Glorious Mountain Temple, Nature
Sacred Place by Alex Burko
1. Amidah
“How softly these mountain rocks are adorned, and how fine and
reassuring the company they keep—their brows in the sky, their
feet set in groves and gay emerald meadows, a thousand flowers
leaning confidingly against their adamantine bosses, while birds
bees butterflies help the river and waterfalls to stir all the air into
music—things frail and fleeting and types of permanence meeting
here and blending as if into this glorious mountain temple Nature
had gathered her choicest treasures, whether great or small to draw
her lovers into close confiding communion with her.”
— John Muir to Teddy Roosevelt
on preserving Yosemite National Park
2. Shema
The earth says have a place, be what that place
requires; hear the sound the birds imply
and see as deep as ridges go behind
each other. (Some people call their scenery flat,
their only pictures framed by what they know:
I think around them rise a riches and a loss
too equal for their chart—but absolutely tall.)*
The earth says every summer have a ranch
that’s minimum: one tree, one well, a landscape
that proclaims a universe—sermon
of the hills, hallelujah mountain,
highway guided by the way the world is tilted,
reduplication of mirage, flat evening:
a kind of ritual for the wavering.
The earth says where you live wear the kind
of color that your life is (grey shirt for me)*
and by listening with the same bowed head that sings
draw all things into one song, join
the sparrow on the lawn, and row that easy
way, the rage without met by the wings
within that guide you anywhere the wind blows.
Listening, I think that’s what the earth says.
— William Stafford
3. Mi Shebeirach
May the source of strength
Who blessed the ones before us
Help us find the courage
to make our lives a blessing
And let us say Amen.
Bless those in need of healing
with r’fuah sh’leimah
The renewal of body,
the renewal of spirit
And let us say Amen.
— Traditional Jewish Prayer
4. Kaddish
“Let my thoughts come to you, when I am gone,
like the afterglow of sunset at the margin of starry silence.”
— Rabindranath Tagore, 1861–1941
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5. Kaddish
“Let my thoughts come to you, when I am gone,
like the afterglow of sunset at the margin of starry silence.”
— Rabindranath Tagore, 1861–1941
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6. Closing Prayer
In the dusk of the river, the wind
gone, the leaves grow still—
The beautiful poise of lightness,
The heavy world pushing toward it.
— Wendell Berry
Excerpt from “The Porch Over the River”
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DONORS & SPONSORS
Anonymous
Joshua Albert
Dr. Harlori & Jaspreet Bains
Pammi & Paul Bains
Sukhvinder Bains
Nyela Basney
Mark Becker
Albert Boerema
Drs. Jim & Joan Borst
Dennis Buteyn
Victor Chang
Dr. Edward Chen
Marianne Ciccolella | In Memory of Gurdip Bains
Sarah Collier
Sue Cooley
Scott Davidson
Larry DeBruyne
Christina Dekoekkoek
De Priest Family Foundation, INC.
Gary Eberle
Debbie Gilmore | In Honor of Dr. Christopher Mason
Susan Grogan | In Memory of Don Vanderpool
Jake Herrera
Sally Jonker
Laura Kozminski
L3Harris Via Blackbaud Giving Fund
Lauri Mason | In Honor of Dr. Christopher Mason
Barbara McCargar
Nathalie Meyer
Emily Volz Mills
Cynthia Molnar
Hailey Moritz
Joshua Plant
Susan Pretty
Melissa Rauch
Dr. Monique Salinas
Bonnie Schippers
Dr. Susan Sevensma
Harry Singh | In Honor of Jaspreet Bains
Christopher Start
Kathryn Stieler / Westphal Family
Chris Sunday
Patricia Thoresen
Anita & Dr. Sarabjit Tokhie
Dr. Harnoor & Avni Tokhie
Elise Tripp | In Honor of Hannah DeBoer
Janice Mason Vanderpool | In Honor of Dr. Christopher Mason
Mark Vermeer
Julie Volz
Lisa Volz
David Weinandy
Todd Wilkie
Sr. Catherine Williams
Lambert Zuidervaart
and other contributions we received from our past concerts.
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