2025 | 5 minutes

Instrumentation

Voice
Piano

Text

Jonathan D. Kroeger

The swaying willow asks the tender lily,
"Why do you, in vain, grow toward the sun?
Are we not symbols of death, tranquilly?
Have our paths not already been run?"
The purest lily sigh sthrough growin pains,
"We cannot see the end of life's short path.
And yet we knwo the moon waxes and wanes."
"And what of sadness, pain, regret, or wrath?"
The lily, "To you I symbolize death,

But with my life such charge I disavow."
The weeping one asks, "Then what is it for?"
Through her fading blooms, "I only live now."
"Your leaves turn brown as the winter drags on."
"Then let us grow before we both are gone."