Eve Beglarian writes of the piece:
so I have a brand new piece in A Book of Days to share with you, in honor of my dear friend Meredith Ward’s 60th birthday, and her recent ordination to what they call the transitional diaconate, because that’s how Episcopalians talk, but it means she’s gonna be a priest, and she’s gonna be an AWESOME priest, and I’m very happy for her….
the piece is called None More than You, and it’s for Roomful of Teeth and the Dessoff Choir, and it sets a text of Whitman along with some messed up consonants from the Gospel of John, and if you want to understand it better, maybe read the whole program note here before you listen to it.
Here is the text:
N th bgnng wz th wrd,
nd th wrd wz wth gd,
nd th wrd wz gd.
nwn hz vr sn gd.
Were you thinking that those were
the words, those upright lines?
No, those are not the words, the
substantial words are in the ground
and sea,
They are in the air, they are in you.
Whoever you are! you are he or she
for whom the earth is solid and
liquid,
You are she or he for whom the sun
and moon hang in the sky,
For none more than you are the
present and the past,
For none more than you is
immortality.
Gospel of John/Walt Whitman
Prufrock's Dilemma 