Credo

I sing the will to love:
the will that carves the will to live,
the will that saps the will to hurt,
the will that kills the will to die;
the will that made and keeps you warm,
the will that points your eyes ahead,
the will that makes you give, not get,
a give and get that tell us what you are:
how much a god, how much a human.
I call on you to live the will to love.

 -by Alfred Kreymborg (1883-1966)

Composer's note:  This piece is one of several I wrote during the COVID-19 lockdown in spring, 2020. Alfred Kreymborg’s name was new to me, and I was excited to find a poet whose work addressed the silly and the sublime in equal measure.
First published in 1915, the words of Credo seem to speak directly to this challenging moment in human history. It is a call
to love, a rejection of hurt and death, an exhortation to look to the future and to examine how we live our lives in relation to one another.