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Cloud Anthem
excerpted by the composer from the poem of Richard Blanco
words in brackets are not set; words in parentheses are modifications to the poem
Until we are clouds that tear like bread but
mend like bones. Until we weave each other
like silk sheets shrouding mountains…
Until we soften our hard
edges, free to become any shape imaginable:
a rose or an angel crafted by the breeze…
Until we scatter ourselves—
…then band together
like stringed pearls. Until we learn to listen to
each other, as thunderous as opera or as soft
as a showered lullaby.
Until we have the courage to vanish like sails
into the horizon, or be at peace, anchored still.
Until we move without any measure,
floating
in an abyss of [virtual] blue we belong to.
Until we care enough
for the earth [to] bless it as morning fog...
Until we remember
we’re born from rivers and dewdrops.
We can die valiant as rainbows,
and hold light in our lucid bodies...
We can decide to move boundlessly, without
creed [or] desire. Until we (we are clouds sharing)
a kingdom with no king,
a city with no walls, a country with no name,
a nation without any borders or claim. Until
we abide as one together in one single sky.
– “Cloud Anthem,” from How to Love a Country: Poems by Richard Blanco, Copyright © 2019 by Richard Blanco.
Reprinted with permission from Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts.
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