As You Set Out

As You Set Out

Text by Maureen Tolman Flannery

As You Set out

Let each place where you stand

            tell what it knows of you.

Let differences draw you.

Let the soil whisper

            to your feet as you pass.

Let the want of a place to rest:

            without bed,

            without home,

            without country,

elevate you to the level

            of kin to all.

Let the kindness of strangers

            feed the hunger you feel.

Eat well and be nourished.

Give of your goodness as if

            It were bread.

Let each person you meet

ask something new of you.

            Wonder grows,

            wonder flows

            over your moving

            like mountain rain

            to wash you clean,

wash the dust of the road

            from your feet.

Commissioned by Dr. Joseph Ohrt for the Bucks County High School-West Symphonic Choir

Published by Boosey and Hawkes/Hal Leonard. #48019856

CME Conductors Choice #2 from Three Festival Songs