Call for some help. Looking for lyrics/poem/words to write music for...

[Nikolas]

Sorry for the long subject...

Thing is that I've just been comissioned to write a choral work. But I have absolutely no idea on what text to go for. I'm the exact oposite of a bookworm really... 

So any idea for texts that could work in a choir context would be most appreciated. Links as well. I could start searching over the internet, but since I know very little, even chosing a poet or a name seems a problem.

As for style, I don't mind. Rhime or no rhime it works. Old or new it works. english only (as the choir is English and semi-professional and although I would love to have them singing in Greek or Russian, it's not an option really... ).

Context: Not happy. Not political.

If I'm asking too much, I guess the thread will die in oblivion...

Thank you in advance.

[m0ds]

Well if you're allowed to make the words up, there are always psalms to take inspiration from. There's some pretty bleak ones in there, too.

[Nacho]

Porm: Every Sperm is Sacred


There are Jews in the world.
There are Buddhists.
There are Hindus and Mormons, and then
There are those that follow Mohammed, but
I've never been one of them.
I'm a Roman Catholic,
And have been since before I was born,
And the one thing they say about Catholics is:
They'll take you as soon as you're warm.
You don't have to be a six-footer.
You don't have to have a great brain.
You don't have to have any clothes on. You're
A Catholic the moment Dad came,

Because

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.

Let the heathen spill theirs
On the dusty ground.
God shall make them pay for
Each sperm that can't be found.

Every sperm is wanted.
Every sperm is good.
Every sperm is needed
In your neighbourhood.

Hindu, Taoist, Mormon,
Spill theirs just anywhere,
But God loves those who treat their
Semen with more care.

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is good.
Every sperm is needed
In your neighbourhood!

Every sperm is useful.
Every sperm is fine.
God needs everybody's.
Mine! And mine! And mine!

Let the Pagan spill theirs
O'er mountain, hill, and plain.
God shall strike them down for
Each sperm that's spilt in vain.

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is good.
Every sperm is needed
In your neighbourhood.

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite iraaaaate!


Written by Palin and Jones.

[ManicMatt]

Use something I wrote!

Or maybe something by Enya.

No, me me me! For some reason I can see a choir singing this! You remember the song, right? The first video I ever did.

Faded Dreams:

They never get to shine but, they're always in our minds

An image projected within ourselves,  So faint and confusing, so obscure,

Some best left secret, we'll tell no soul, Dark tales of something untrue,

The dreams they fade within my heart,
The life I never lived my part,
The dreams they die within my heart,
The life that never had a start

Like petals that fall into the sky, simply unreachable,
Sometimes we're afraid to wake up, we'll never come here now,
We dream of spirits that are not, were they our own echoes?

[Buckethead]

is that poem from Monty python?

[SSH]

Here's some Scottish poetry (but in normal English, mainly): http://www.rampantscotland.com/poetry/blpoems_keepsake.htm
http://www.rampantscotland.com/poetry/blpoems_wisdom.htm
http://www.spl.org.uk/best-poems/whyte.htm


Or Ludovic Janvier's Smile:

Slowly, you breathe in everything about sleeping beauty
but a passerby makes you turn round torn
suddenly by this unexpected smile
surging from their childhood in memory of who knows what
a smile softly grazing the skin shifting like shadow
offered to and then withdrawn from everyone walking by

ever since you could walk and remember you're seeking
the forgotten angel the angel announced by this mouth and that
the sum of loved faces whose sad musical caress has brusquely
come and gone to bury itself forever in the hectic pace of things
after briefly quoting this mysterious smile from once upon a time


Jacques Rancourt Thread of Horizon:

On this
single
thread of horizon
on this night of the horizon
the full moon bounces itself like a ball
there is the light of a heavy day
which evaporates in the blackened air

On this blade of horizon
will perish
the large debates of the little day
the short term notions that follow a lie down
there is the line of the shoulders
that exults in such peace
there is the bottom of the heart
which clears out its clinker

Onto this arch of horizon
is being grafted
the attenuated tissue of the stars
the universe itself
begins here
in this partly perfect light
the heart crackling
under the line of the shoulders
the line of the shoulders
swaying
on the axis of its galaxy

[LGM]

You're welcome to anything on my site. There's some depressing poetry there

http://www.aedmark.com/writings/

This might be interesting if set to music:

Love is a horrible mess of a thing.

Why do I dwell upon it when I've never experienced it before?

Am I a hack?
A pathetic loser?
A forever sad, lonely little boy with nothing better to do?

Why doesn't anyone care about me,
Praise me,
Or give me words of encouragement?

Why must the world see me as a perverse individual,
And assume the worst of my personality?
Am I truly that terrible?

Am I unworthy of sleeping in the dirt amongst the dogs?
Of groveling in the waste of the masses?
Of crying in the privacy of my own heart?
Am I the scum of the earth?
Am I… Just what the hell am I?

Do I deserve the right to look upon your face?
Do I reserve the right to breathe the same air you do?

Should I lie in a deep dark pit under sixty feet of rotting corpses?
Should I disappear from the face of the earth,
Just so you can finally be happy?

Should I wallow in my own filth as the pigs do?
Should I feast from the infected wounds of an animal's carcass?

Should I be alive?
Am I alive?
Am I breathing?
Tell me, is my heart still beating?

Am I dying?

Am I dead?

[Tuomas]

Oh sweet jesus, this is getting me close to orgasm.

Context: Not happy. Not political.

Two things that count me out.

Anyway, please, more emo stuff, I haven't cried enough.

[biothlebop]

The thought of a choir singing Bukowski brings a smile to my face.
http://www.poemhunter.com/charles-bukowski/

[monkey0506]

As you wish Tuomas!

Without Her


I love her, and I don't know why,
But inside my heart is screaming her name.
Away from these feelings I cannot shy;
Though I don't understand just what they mean.

I've tried before, you can't say I didn't try.
I fought so hard inside my mind
To make it go away, to make her image die.
That's when I find I can't tear her from my heart;

My heart isn't mine, it's not even there.
An empty void is all you'll find;
A black empty hole, that's the place where
It used to be, but now it's gone.

She doesn't know the way things really are,
That my heart is gone because it's within her.
I gave it to her, my gift to the stars,
But she never gave it back.

I don't want it back you see,
I gave it to her, for her to keep.
But without it, I don't know how to be,
And my life is nothing, without her.

Copyright (C)Michael Rittenhouse 2006

[EldKatt]

Have a look at The Lied and Art Song Texts Page. As you might suspect from the title it's a collection of... well, Lied and art song texts. Poetry. Lots and lots of it, in various languages (and I really mean lots). What makes this possibly more worth suggesting than any other collection of poetry (aside from it being huge!, but I've mentioned that already) is that all of this has actually been set to music, so you'll know it's at least somewhat suitable.

Also you could go with a Shakespeare sonnet. Everybody does it. I've been thinking about writing a quasi-Baroque choral setting of the 60th sonnet (at least I think that's the one; Like as the waves) for quite some time, though I don't think I'll get round to doing it soon. Feel free to steal the inspiration.

If you want specific suggestions, you ought to specify the context a bit further. Especially if "not happy" just means not happy, as opposed to emo wrist-cutting sad, which I guess is somewhat more specific already.