The Children Of Jericho (1997)

Seventy Thousand Assyrians (2000)

Joyous Light Of The World (1992)

Ice Birds (2002)

For solo Oboe and fixed audio.  Premiered at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Redlands, California in 2013.

Making Merry Hoohaw Over Misery

Lyrics mostly taken from statements made by various yahoos either running for office (or endorsing them) during the 2012 national elections.  Some are a bit older.  Bonus points for identifying the speakers.

The Elect

Like slaves we ask no questions
We're made with righteous knacks and pipes so don't you refutate us
We have no idea what we're hot about
We name this just lying testifying

We don't know but we don't care
And it shows in these vacant stares

We gotta save them before we kill them
Cause if you feed them then they'll only keep on multiplying
Our guns won't kill no one 'cept savages
We'll blow them all away in the name of...

We don't know and we don't care
You should know by these vacant stares

(We get what we deserve...and so do you)

We're gonna buy ourselves some big cars
So we can crash them in the ocean with the trumpets wailing
But first we stop Sadiq from killing Christmas
The shifting subtext behind that textbook propaganda
Don't use all those big words, confuses us
So, why don't all the monkeys become people?

We don't know and we don't care
We're so slow that we're already there 
Radio's the place we swear
We've got truth on our blankets so take them, now take them

The Elect

Three Things You Didn't Know About the Dark

Your Move

You confess an answer
Making all the change then taking it away
I'm never catching on
It's just a piece of paper that contains a list
Of everything
That you and I pretend to do
How we ever found the line
Between us is the only thing that ever mattered
Crossed beyond, then gone below
The minimum you get for all the sacrifice

Go and show your other side, then pass the hat 'cause
You renew the tribe you pay your tribute to

And here we go facing everything
How could we know what this trip would bring
I'm so tired and so are you
And we're not even close to being through

Your Move

The Desert

My legs are tired but I'm wide awake 
fold my wings gonna walk all day 
and won't be coming back again 
flat on my back atop a rock at 2AM 
sling up my rope I'm gonna clear the deck 
of the knowing 
the water drains away into the sand 
I wish that you could go 
the moon is only set 
change'd do you good 
so keep awake and watch 
to see if all the rain 
is ever gonna find me 
and don't forget to set the net 
coyote cries all night 
there is no time to measure 
I guess my clock is all but useless here 
no walls no windows 
no frozen limbo 
no broken light wheel
no desert snowfield 
go fly away 
I'm gonna take that easy ride 
a different kind of eye 
so you can see inside you 
a way to redesign you 
it's light the whole night and so am I 
up on the ridge 
among the rocks around my head 
just like an island 
miles of blazing distance 
came away to sit here all alone 
the sun arrives the day begins just the way it does 
humming in a silent ear 
below the dust to build a space between us 
the cracks in all the world are real 
the road is new but broken 
up on a cliff the sound of planes above my head 
to get a better look 
they're making dead sand 
out there on the horizon but not inside you

The Desert

Anchors

She arrays herself with anchors
Only so she can jump overboard with her anger
She won’t take the only blade that could cut them away
And so she goes underwater sliding
Deep down into the underside

She could know she’s got folded wings
If she’d only turn around
She could sail off and never stop this moment
She could climb above the clouds 
Out into the wide honesty of time
But she hides

And so she glides on down to the trenches
Until she sees herself unbounded
Takes the knife and cuts all the lines away
That’s when she drops the anchors
And here she comes like she’s ablaze

Paul Barsom