And So We Sing

Womansong with Debbie Nordeen directing.  Photos by Tamara Gregg.

Our lives go on in endless song
as the wailing laments of Earth grow louder.
We sing and remember the great gifts of women,
obliterating the war shouts of the ones in power.
We sing for our interwoven abilities
which birth a brilliant future,
pulling together in harmony
for each other’s sake.
We sing for the generations
and insist on providing for their rights
to live, to love, to thrive.
Our lives go on in endless song,
in endless trust of each other,
in the divine plan unfolding petal by petal,
deep below the surface, where all music begins,
in the lotus bloom of our energies working together-
and so we sing.

Annelinde Metzner
September 20, 2017

In 1987 I founded the Asheville women's choral group Womansong, and nurtured it for seven years, choosing and arranging music, performing benefits, and creating a nonprofit, the New Start Fund, so that our earnings would help boost local women who were starting life over and needed help.  Our focus has always been women's empowerment, equality, world peace and understanding.
     Now Womansong is 75 singers, and we had a 30th anniversary concert a few weeks ago!   Thanks to Debbie Nordeen and all the many women who have developed Womansong and carried it forward.  The New Start Program has now earned and given away over $160,000.  
     As Debbie retires, her very able assistant director, Althea Gonzalez, will be carrying on as artistic director.
    Thanks to all the many women for our shared creativity!
    I read this poem to introduce the song "How Can I Keep from Singing," at the anniversary concert.

Myself reading at the performance

At rehearsal-  Introducing a song with "And So We Sing"

Althea Gonzalez directing "Coffee"

Dancing and singing to "Well, All Right"

Release

"Healing" by Autumn Sky Morrison

Release your fears of this world!
Angry men carry guns
and everywhere they shoot,
enraged, they shoot,
carrying away women, children,
everyday people.
Far from feeling remorse,
they shout all the more,
proud, swollen with hate.
“We should all carry guns,” they cry,
meaning them, or men like them,
as if this world had somehow slighted
the muscular, the Caucasian, the loud.

If you are not afraid, you are somehow tired,
hearing of these senseless acts
day after day after day.
Like the bully on the block,
they take all the attention,
voracious for your gaze.

Thousands of years, we have found ways to live
integrated into Earth life, warm, colorful,
artistic, joyfilled, unique to each place.
Each corner of this perfect globe
has its arts, its languages,
its people ingrained in the life of that place,
seeds sprouting in native soil.
Yes, we were born for this!
A daily life of magic, of ingenuity,
creativity, days spent unearthing
the gifts of our soul’s being.

Now I hear, “protect yourself,
shield yourself, be on your guard,”
warnings that seem to make sense
for these crazy times,
a natural response
to the ugly, the unwarranted,
the cruel, the violent, the unjust.

But here I sit beside the quiet waters,
pen in hand,
life still churning within me,
joy bubbling up from nowhere,
and I am on notice:
“I am coming,” She cries,
“and you will see...
Soon I will bring the spring flowers to bloom,
the migrating birds to return to your window.
Regenerate! is My call,
all you who are heavy laden.
Rebirth is our watchword, all we ever are.
Look to the East with me,
the bright burst of sun in the sky,
and call out to Her with your urgent voice,
your ancient joy and pleasure,
with all the pure love you can wield.”

Annelinde Metzner
January 30, 2016

Another mass murder, one of the largest in history, and once again I call on the Goddess, regenerate this world, make us new!