NEW WORLD - ON THE EDGE OF TOMORROW www.internationalpeacefestival.net

NEW WORLD

I

ON THE EDGE OF TOMORROW

Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp

???????????????????????????????????????? Or what’s a heaven for?

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Robert Browning (From Andrea del Sarto)

VOICES CARRIED BY THE WIND

‘Very old are we men;

Our dreams are tales

Told in dim Eden

By Eve’s nightingales.’[1]

“What is that sound?”

??????????????????????? CHORUS: Voices from the ruins of the past.

“What shall we do?”

??????????????????????? CHORUS: We shall summon to them now!

Listless Voices rising from the ashes of the past;

Voices of all the suffering and sacrificing,

Voices that the unmitigated rage and hope had cast,

The cycles of the struggling, the growing and preparing,

Voices of the oppressed, the conquered and the despairing,

Voices of the diseased, the weak and uncultivated,

Through the waiting years, musing, wondering and forgetting,

Voices of the wretched, the trampled and the alienated,

Transfigured with the song of that which was contemplated,

Leave behind the precipice upon which stands ruinous fate,

The ruins of the past with its cyclic and frozen face,

Shadowed by the coming storm pursuing that winged shape,

And surge upward with your swift and uncompromising gaze

To the as yet unfinished edifice of tomorrow’s days.???

?

SPECTRES FROM THE PAST

By the waters of Lethe they sat down and wept

??????? As they remembered the tall precipice,

??????? The steep edge from which they gazed on many truths,

Far from the depths of that imageless abyss,

??????? Into the distant light of hope that soothes

?????? The heart where hope is kept,

Where destiny at birth on each bestows

??????? The promise of this earthly paradise,

??????? And at death new possibilities arise,

And gain each future generation’s vows.

“How long do they mean to be content upon that ledge?”

??????????????????? CHORUS: Let us stretch our hand to the orgiastic future.

?

A MIST ENVELOPES THE AIR

?I, Proteus, older sea god, throbbing between two worlds,

Shape-shifter and prophet having been caught,

And held while I exhaust my changing folds,

Perceive the future and foretell the rest:

The way up and the way down are one and the same.[2]

Time future contained in time present, tomorrow into today.

?

VOICES IN THE AIR

‘Yes, yes, we have felt so the lapse of hours,

??? ????Time that wears out the life of mortal men

??????????????????? On the revolving world of change and chance,

??????? An aimless world pining in endless pain

??????????????????? With the repeated blows of circumstance

??????????????????????? ? On man’s resilient powers.

??????? And having dreams and hoped and loved and fought,

? ????????????????? And tired upon utopian plans our thought,

??????????????????? To the just-pausing Proteus we turn our lot,

??????????????????? Tomorrow to foretell all that we sought.’

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????II

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? CITE LIBRE

??????????????????????????????????? Here, where the Human form shall endeavour

??????????????????????????????????? ???? ?????? In all her majesty,

??????????????????????????????????? Here, where life has man for neighbor

??????????????????????????????????? ???? ?????? And dreams and hopes set free.

??????????????????????????????????? Then we shall not dare real ills to hide

??????????????????????????????????? In trappings of poetic pride,

??????????????????????????????????? But set our tender hearts to bide

??????????????????????????????????????????????? In our humanity.

?

??????????????????????????????????? Here, where we breed a new beginning

??????????????????????????????????????????????? And nourish hopes sublime,

??????????????????????????????????? And summon to that form trans-shifting

??????????????????????????????????????????????? The worn-out steps of Time.

??????????????????????????????????? To mount that immortal staircase

??????????????????????????????????? That knows no colour, creed or race,

??????????????????????????????????? But the spark in the human face

??????????????????????????????????????????????? That lights the living flame.

?

??????????????????????????????????? Days no longer in painful labour

??????????????????????????????????????????????? To plague and torture man,

??????????????????????????????????? And the enmity to harbor

??????????????????????????????????????????????? And status quo retain.

??????????????????????????????????? But to nourish our fruit in deeds,

??????????????????????????????????? And in our garden plant the seeds

??????????????????????????????????? Where today tomorrow feeds

??????????????????????????????????????????????? The dreams and visions seen.

?

??????????????????????????????????? For the world cries the time is now

??????????????????????????????????????????????? To seize the exploded dream,

??????????????????????????????????? Now! to contain its powerful flow

??????????????????????????????????????????????? Within that Proteun stream.

??????????????????????????????????? And to exalt the human race

??????????????????????????????????? To prevail over time and space,

??????????????????????????????????? And bring endurance to our days

??????????????????????????????????????????????? And triumph to our dream.

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? Angélique Codina

[1] Walter De la Mare

[2] Heriditus