Hymn Review: The Heavens' Flock

BYU-Idaho's top choral group performed The Heavens' Flock in the SLC Tabernacle during Music & The Spoken Word last Sunday. I was incredibly moved by the Christian message by the non-Christian poet, Paulann Petersen.

In the piece, the poet lauds the stars in the heavens, which obediently graze across the sky like animate beings, never straying. The poet, lost and wandering herself, enviously emulates the Great Shepherd's celestial flock by building a makeshift fire of her own made of gathered "lichen" and "branches" and "twiggy clatter". I loved the inferred metaphor of the collected "earthfood" to stoke the poet's internal fire. To me, her gathering efforts represent mortal obedience and sacrifice—the fuel of my own discipleship.

Like the poet, though my fire is far from a constant, celestial blaze, my feeble attempts to be a light are seen and appreciated by my God, the Creator of all.



LYRICS

Stars, you are the heavens' flock tangling your pale wool across the night sky. 

Stars, you're bits of oily fleece catching on barbs of darkness to swirl in black wind. 

You appear, disappear by thousands, scattered wide to graze but never straying. 

While I, a mere shepherd of these words, am lost. 

What can I do but build a small blaze and feed it with branches the trees let fall: 

that twiggy clatter strewn along the ground. 

And lichen crusting such dead limbs glows silver, glows white. 

The earthfood for a fire so unlike and like your own. 

Oh, what can I do but build a small blaze.

MUSIC
Ēriks Ešenvalds

TEXT
Paulann Petersen

Additional performances
Portland State Chamber Choir and Trinity College Choir

Additional thoughts
Chris Yoder