I Dwell in Possibility

TTBB, piano

Written for the Pacific Lutheran University Men’s Chorus performance at the NW NAfME Conference in February 2011, and dedicated to my father, Edward Galante, on his 60th birthday.

Text

I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –
Of Visitors – the fairest –

For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –

— Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)