listening to orff

let us give the players thanks
they've made noble seeming
and the singers in their ranks
in the lights are gleaming

we've sat here so many times
listening to their playing
strings and horns and drums and chimes
we know what they are saying

all the days we work to know
just where we are going
but these folk know how to show
and are proud in the showing

all our lives we've wanted song
to tell us our passions
now we learn that we were wrong
and are on short rations

let the ones who take our cash
know that we are grounded
we're not hasty and not rash
our fears are well-founded

now we watch the singers rise
in a single movement
their song reaches to the skies
needing no improvement

the bassoonist chants along
he should get a single rose
while we listen to the song
a lone cellist blows her nose

we've been taken from our place
by this magic playing
minds are whirling in deep space
while our heads are greying

let's be sure of what we do
all our thoughts are tending
to give us a single view
of how life is bending

now we come to shout our praise
the concert is over
but we'll know for all our days
fortune is a rover