Celebrating the Solstice, Inspiring Creation

Posted December 23, 2024

Inspired by Ars Nova Singers’ holiday concerts, Light/Shadow, audience member Fran Hamilton wrote this beautiful poem in response to our music, particularly Arvo Pärt’s “Magnificat.”

it is enough
I have discovered it is enough
when a single note is beautifully played.
…the melody and accompanying voice…is one.
One and one is one, it is not two.

~ Estonian composer Arvo Pärt

across the Atlantic seven hundred years ago
in late medieval France an ars nova evolved
a new art of polyphonic rhythms and rounds
a cappella motets based on sacred texts
and now listeners gather in this long night
for Ars Nova for choral beauty ineffable
our spirits like prisms drawing forth
notes of every color played within white light
conductor’s hands rise  draw forth
notes like bells  chords like chorus
celestial like waves from the sea
to our shore

as a circle of singers surround us
submerge us in oceans of music wonder
I remember that seven hundred years ago
a poet in Persia yearned to speak like music
I wish I could put the swaying splendor
of fields into words, wrote Hafiz,
so that you could hold Truth

in our program of light through shadows
dispelling darkness   benevolent beams   shafts
of precision through murmuring forests of druids
are stories of music love   of sounds sublime
Music… uplifts sad minds… moves the very trees
someone wrote five centuries ago   yes and yes
as voices join successively as if a spiral

The storm is coming soon we are reminded
My words will be the light to carry you to me
all one together harmonies rise once again
ephemeral    eternal    ethereal
She sings and sings knowing she has wings
treble and tenor synergies slip into silence
is love alive? is love alive?
yes and yes our voices sing again
canons of carols through holy time
tears emerge in beauty
from unseen wells of thanksgiving
doors open   the moon is full
it is enough

fran I hamilton
December 14, 2024

Ten years ago, Fran published Goodness to Go, a 500-page handbook for humanitarians focused on integrating service into daily life. Along with her daughter Grace’s father, she represents Child In Need Institute (CINI), an award-winning children’s charity based in Calcutta, India, in the U.S.

Writing has always been one of her passions; she has self-published two poetry chapbooks, with a third on the way, and was an English teacher before pursuing a career in medicine.

Fran’s life has been deeply inspired by beauty in all its forms—music, nature, gratitude, and a profound love for life. For 25 years, she served as an integrative family physician at Boulder Community Hospital, addressing not only physical health but also psychiatry, complementary medicine, and psychospiritual well-being.

Born into a medical family in Canada, her father, a surgeon, also won Canada’s Juno Award for his first jazz album with his band, The Brass Connection. Music has been a lifelong love of hers; she has played several instruments, sung in choirs, and cherished the joy of singing throughout her life.

We are honored to share this beautiful poem with you to celebrate the Solstice and the winter holidays.