April 11th, 2008
How To Find Inspiration
Years ago, I was writing music for a slide show of the life of a great western saint, St Francis. My problem was that the stanzas of his most famous poem were so irregular that one line might have five syllables, and another might have twenty five. For years I was thwarted by this difficulty. Yet now I needed a melody for that poem. I strongly visualized St Francis as it is said he first sang it to his chief woman disciple and a brother monk. Legend tells us that he had risen from his death bed and was leaning against a tree, blind and ill, but triumphant in the joy he felt in his love for God.