LaVoy: Let My Words Be Fire

"Let My Words Be Fire" was commissioned for the Davidson College Chorale by Dr. Christopher Gilliam, Director of Choral Activities at Davidson College, for the premiere performance on April 12, 2019. The piece, composed by Thomas LaVoy, sets a poem titled "A Song of Fire," penned by Davidson College senior and Chorale member Martin Malotky.

Recorded live on April 12, 2019 in Davidson College Presbyterian Church on the Davidson College campus.

Let my words be fire
that modifies the immutable heartwood
which grows hard and cold
in the hateful frost

the cold, dead tree
will know spring again
when my words blossom and crest
against the bleak, knotted wood.

No light will shine 
but my words
when the sun has left the tree
blind and lonely.

In the silent wood, 
where the trees stand like strangers
let my words speak sparks and roars
in defiance of the quiet.

Let my words transform,
or better yet, be transformed;
for flames will always grow,
and always too will die.
--Martin Malotky