I wrote this work back in late 1992, almost 30 years ago, and it is still my most-performed choral piece. And unusually for me, I also wrote the words. Here is the text:

OUR WISH THIS YEAR IS PEACE

As we look out upon the darkness of the night,

The shorten’d days, our world bereft of light and warmth,

Our wish this year is peace.

As we lament the poor, disfigured, bleeding earth

Whose sons and daughters kill her in their march toward worthless goals,

While all her life slips down and ever further downward,

Our wish this year is peace.

For justice to rain down upon us all,

The poor, the dispossessed, the hungry, smallest child,

We must do more than hope.

But hope is often all we have

To outface logic and the seeming void

Which cries with hideous laughter “All is lost!”

And yet in darkness often miracles occur.

The smallest seed will germinate and, blurring time and space, confound the odds and grow.

And so, like seeds, our hopes in darkness rest.

While tears of love and moist despair, invested without thinking,

May bring nurture and the birth of something new,

Awaited since the dawn of time by all who truly love.

Our wish this year is peace.