Yesterday I heard a program from BBC called Heart and Soul.
The story was about the history of the word, hallelujah. It featured the song Hallelujah written by Leonard Cohen. I started looking for the song and found it had been performed many times by many people. I have been singing it all day and woke up singing it this morning. There was another composition in the broadcast that the composer Jocelyn Pook put together after hearing a historian sing a psalm in Hebrew. It was one of the prettiest songs I had ever heard. I have been sort of humming that one but I don’t know Hebrew.
The broadcast and the songs made me think up a poem this morning: at least, the beginnings of one: about a blind person saying hallelujah for the stars and sky: a deaf person saying hallelujah for the songs of birds and someone on a death bed saying hallelujah for the life and existence of everything in the universe.
The lyrics in Hallelujah speak of people from the Bible but it’s about the exquisite pain of love. At least that’s what I think. Everyone seems to love Rufus Wainwright but I love the performance of Jeff Buckley.
This word resonates with me because growing up in a Pentecostal church I heard the word hallelujah all the time. But I don’t use the word as praise to an almighty male Gawd sitting up in the sky judging me. God to me means whatever gods and goddesses and intelligences there are that created the heavens and all there is.
I feel that even if I were blind I would be thankful that there are clouds and stars. Even on my dying day I will be thankful that somewhere there is new life and beauty. And in my dark hours – that we all have – I am thankful for what is, what was and what will be.
Peace to you in the coming year. Whatever your experiences have been in this last year I hope this coming year will be better and shinier.
The history of hallelujah
Yesterday I heard a program from BBC called Heart and Soul.
The story was about the history of the word, hallelujah. It featured the song Hallelujah written by Leonard Cohen. I started looking for the song and found it had been performed many times by many people. I have been singing it all day and woke up singing it this morning. There was another composition in the broadcast that the composer Jocelyn Pook put together after hearing a historian sing a psalm in Hebrew. It was one of the prettiest songs I had ever heard. I have been sort of humming that one but I don’t know Hebrew.
The broadcast and the songs made me think up a poem this morning: at least, the beginnings of one: about a blind person saying hallelujah for the stars and sky: a deaf person saying hallelujah for the songs of birds and someone on a death bed saying hallelujah for the life and existence of everything in the universe.
The lyrics in Hallelujah speak of people from the Bible but it’s about the exquisite pain of love. At least that’s what I think. Everyone seems to love Rufus Wainwright but I love the performance of Jeff Buckley.
This word resonates with me because growing up in a Pentecostal church I heard the word hallelujah all the time. But I don’t use the word as praise to an almighty male Gawd sitting up in the sky judging me. God to me means whatever gods and goddesses and intelligences there are that created the heavens and all there is.
I feel that even if I were blind I would be thankful that there are clouds and stars. Even on my dying day I will be thankful that somewhere there is new life and beauty. And in my dark hours – that we all have – I am thankful for what is, what was and what will be.
Peace to you in the coming year. Whatever your experiences have been in this last year I hope this coming year will be better and shinier.
Keep creating