Sauntering Songs
Nell Shaw Cohen
Skylark Vocal Ensemble | Matthew Guard
Juventas New Music Ensemble | James Moore, Guitar
Program Notes and Texts
Sauntering Songs (2023)
Libretto
Texts by Nell Shaw Cohen, except where indicated.
1. Prologue: The Open Road | Text by Walt Whitman
2. Their Stories
3. First Footsteps | Solo: Sarah Moyer
4. Quotation from John Muir
5. Further Out, Deeper In
6. Just Because | Solo: Carrie Cheron
7. One Walks the Flesh Transparent | Text by Nan Shepherd
8. Best Friend | Solo: Erik Gustafson
9. Street Haunting | Text by Virginia Woolf
10. Woman Walking | Solo: Megan Roth | Lyrics by Megan Cohen
11. Rare Bird | Solos: Erik Gustafson and Dana Whiteside
12. Where There Was No Path | Text by John Clare
13. Trespassing | Solo: Nathan Hodgson
14. Solid Ground | Solos: Enrico Lagasca and Sophie Amelkin
15. Their Stories (Reprise)
16. Quotation from John Francis
17. Epilogue: Fallen Star | Solo: Dana Whiteside | Lyrics by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen
Transform the World with Beauty (2019)
Texts
18. My First Camera | Text by Julia Margaret Cameron
19. In an Artist’s Studio | Text by Christina Rossetti
20. Transform the World with Beauty | Quotations from William Morris
Sauntering Songs (2023)
Composer’s Program Note
In Wanderlust: A History of Walking, Rebecca Solnit describes the ideal of walking as “a state in which the mind, the body, and the world are aligned, as though they were three characters finally in conversation together, three notes suddenly making a chord.” Propelled by longing for freedom and fulfillment, the characters of Sauntering Songs each aspire to this harmonious state of flow. Out on the road, trail, or street, their diverse stories invite the question: if walking is an essential way of being, then who may claim the right to be in this world?
My vision for Sauntering Songs is rooted in Skylark’s stunning artistry as a vocal ensemble, as well as their collaborative generosity and willingness to take risks. They’ve given me the precious gift of creative freedom, providing an opportunity to weave the many threads of my musical and narrative voice into single concert-length work. From my early background as a progressive rock musician to my love of Renaissance choral music, it’s all here in the songs of these walkers.
The score and libretto for this project emerged through engagement with an array of authors, advocates, and activists who have deeply explored walking as a personal, cultural, and political practice.
Several of my literary inspirations are incorporated directly into the cantata as choral pieces: reflective, thematically-driven counterparts to the songs for soloists and chamber ensemble, echoing the structure of a Baroque oratorio. These settings include an excerpt from Walt Whitman’s thrilling “Song of the Open Road” from Leaves of Grass; Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, a transcendent celebration of Scotland’s Cairngorm mountains; Virginia Woolf’s essay of urban exploration, Street Haunting; and 19th century Romantic poet John Clare’s Trespass.
Spoken recitations of quotations from two visionary American walkers and environmentalists, John Muir (1838-1914), known as the “father of the national parks,” and John Francis (b. 1946), known as the “Planetwalker,” bookend the journey.
Yet there are many other powerful stories that have further inspired and informed this cantata—especially its character-driven songs and duets, which feature a rotation of eight soloists from Skylark’s ranks.
The life of Emma Gatewood, who in 1955 became the first solo female thru-hiker of the Appalachian Trail at the age of 67, (very) loosely inspired my song “Just Because.” I consulted Ben Montgomery’s Grandma Gatewood’s Walk to familiarize myself with her story.
The song “Best Friend” was informed by the work of writers and advocates in the disability community, notably essayist and Coast Guard veteran Tenley Lozano’s “Submerged” (Crab Orchard Review) and interview with Cascade Hiker podcast (“Hiking with a Service Dog”); Syren Nagakyrie’s work with DisabledHikers.com; and Bill Irwin’s hiking memoir Blind Courage.
Writer Lauren Elkin’s description of the flâneuse, an archetypal woman who explores urban landscapes, helped provide impetus for “Woman Walking,” with lyrics by Megan Cohen; and both “Woman Walking” and “First Footsteps” were sparked in part by Rebecca Solnit’s writing in Wanderlust on the ways in which women’s movement through public spaces has been restricted, and reveled in, through the centuries.
The lyrical works of author, poet, and wildlife biologist J. Drew Lanham (Sparrow Envy and The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature) were the animating inspiration behind duet “Rare Bird,” including my use of the title phrase; alongside essays by Carolyn Finney and Evelyn C. White, among others, about their experiences of being Black outdoors.
“Trespassing” was influenced by historical and contemporary “right to roam” movements in Britain (see Ewan MacColl’s folk song “Manchester Rambler”); as well as Raja Shehadeh’s book Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape, a heartbreaking tribute to the Arab sarha (which means “to roam freely, at will, without restraint”).
The intergenerational duet “Solid Ground” emerged as a synthesis of many influences, including my exploration of the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail in California; as well as Lauret Savoy’s book Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape.
Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot was an important companion in the creation of Sauntering Songs, and its influence became threaded into my thinking and reading on these subjects.
In addition to the above inspirations (and too many others to list), I’m grateful to several contributors on this project: writer Laura Elliott, sensitivity consultant for “Best Friend”; Dr. Kassandra Ford, sensitivity consultant for “Rare Bird”; Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, lyricist for “Fallen Star”; soprano Laura Strickling, who commissioned the first version of “Woman Walking”; and especially my sister and frequent collaborator Megan Cohen, who wrote brilliant lyrics for “Woman Walking” and also provided key dramaturgical insights that helped give shape to my libretto.
Above all, I’m deeply grateful to Skylark for entrusting me with creating this cantata for their World Premiere performances and recording.
I sincerely hope you enjoy listening to Sauntering Songs and that it inspires new perspectives, and perhaps a journey of your own—be it ambulatory or imaginative!
—Nell Shaw Cohen, Composer & Librettist
Libretto
Texts by Nell Shaw Cohen, except where otherwise indicated.
1. Prologue: The Open Road
Text by Walt Whitman.
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open
road!
Healthy, free, the world before me!
The long brown path before me, leading wherever
I choose!
The earth expanding right hand and left hand,
The picture alive, every part in its best light,
The music falling in where it is wanted, and
stopping where it is not wanted,
The cheerful voice of the public road—the gay
fresh sentiment of the road.
From this hour, I ordain myself loosed of limits
and imaginary lines!
Going where I list—my own master, total and
absolute,
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open
road!
Healthy, free, the world before me!
The long brown path before me, leading wherever
I choose!
The cheerful voice of the public road—the gay
fresh sentiment of the road.
The open road!
2. Their Stories
(Spoken)
A young woman frees herself from garden walls.
A thru-hiker takes to the trail late in life.
A disabled hiker on a mountain walk.
A solitary woman saunters city streets.
Two friends go birdwatching in the suburbs.
A man trespasses in the countryside.
Two generations tread the same path.
A wanderer walks the American West.
(Sung)
If walking is an essential way of being—
Free and unafraid
As our full, solitary selves—
Then who may claim the right to be in this world?
And what are their ways of walking?
(Spoken)
Freed from a future that has been planned for her.
Freed from decades of being defined by others.
Finding peace outdoors with their best friend.
Taking it all in and going nowhere in particular.
Spotting rare birds together.
Reclaiming his ancestral homeland.
Retracing the ways of the past.
Searching for home in the starry sky.
(Sung)
If walking is an essential way of being—
Free and unafraid
As our full, solitary selves—
Then who may claim the right to be in this world?
They are the walkers who are longing,
Who are searching,
Who are becoming themselves.
And what are their ways of walking?
What are their stories?
3. First Footsteps
This song is dedicated to women and girls who walk beyond the boundaries they are given.
(Spoken)
NARRATOR: A young woman walks in a lush garden growing within high walls. Confined at home, she awaits a future that has been planned for her.
(Sung)
Strolling in the garden,
Taking steps on sun warm tiles;
The place that is my own,
The place where I have grown…
All my life.
Breathing in the flowers,
Idling for hours
On my walks.
Pulling the weeds,
Meeting my needs for air and light and motion;
But I’m not satisfied.
Considering
My first footsteps outside these walls—
Can I face what is forbidden?
It may destroy me, I am told.
Watching out the window,
Wandering all around the world;
The place that is unknown,
The place where I would go…
If I could.
Sequestered like a queen;
A lady’s never seen,
I am told.
Passing the days
Accepting praise for youth and quiet beauty;
But I’m not satisfied.
So, I’m planning
My first footsteps outside these walls—
Can I face what is forbidden?
It may destroy me, I am told;
Yet I feel called to be bold!
Mountains and deserts and oceans
Unseen, unwalked;
Companions and strangers and lovers
Unmet, undiscovered;
And the versions of my selves
Decorating the shelves of my room
Like portraits of a life unlived.
A life unlived…
I’m taking
My first footsteps outside these walls,
My first footsteps outside these walls—
I will face what is forbidden!
It may destroy me, I am told;
Yet I feel called to be bold,
To be bold!
I am here.
I am born.
I am bold.
4. Quotation from John Muir
“I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” —John Muir
5. Further Out, Deeper In
…the winding of a footpath,
the leading line that draws you out and onwards into the land;
the thread of retracing footsteps,
of the journeys you can never know;
the winding footpath.
The winding footpath.
Drawing you further out,
Luring you deeper in.
…the secrets of a forest,
the covering shade that draws you out and onwards into the wood;
the darkening understory
of the canopy you’ll never know;
the secret forest.
The secret forest.
Drawing you further out,
Luring you deeper in.
…the edge at the horizon,
the reaching sight that draws you out and upwards into the sky;
the distance of boundless spaces,
of the places you can never go;
the vast horizon.
The vast horizon.
…the thread of retracing footsteps,
the darkening understory,
the distance of boundless spaces…
The winding footpath.
The secret forest.
The vast horizon.
6. Just Because
This song is dedicated to those who venture down new paths late in life.
(Spoken)
NARRATOR: Having spent decades as a wife and mother, a woman redefines herself by thru-hiking a long distance trail alone.
(Sung)
They don’t expect to see
An old woman like me out here.
“Why do you walk the trail?” They ask.
I tell them:
Because it’s there.
Because I can.
Just— because.
Mountains I want to claim,
But not for fame;
Forests that call for me,
They know my name!
Children are gone and grown,
They walk alone;
Husband has finally left,
I am my own!
I’m no philosopher—
I just love the
Feeling of the dirt packed firm beneath my boots,
The resistance of rocks and rambles over roots,
The dew settled on my blanket at dawn,
The citrus scent of pine sap in the afternoon,
And the hum of anonymous campers at twilight.
But…
After a thousand miles,
My feet swell up like footballs!
“How do you keep it up?” They ask.
“Don’t you get tired?” They ask.
Yup!
So what!
I tell them:
A long, hard life
Prepares you for long, hard fun!
I’m no philosopher—
But these calluses are hard won…
So what if I’m tired?
It’s mine to feel.
It feels real…
Because it’s there.
Because I can!
Just… because.
7. One Walks the Flesh Transparent
Text by Nan Shepherd
Walking thus, hour after hour, the senses keyed, one walks the flesh transparent. But no metaphor, transparent, or light as air, is adequate. The body is not made negligible, but paramount. Flesh is not annihilated but fulfilled. One is not bodiless, but essential body. It is therefore when the body is keyed to its highest potential and controlled to a profound harmony deepening into something that resembles trance, that I discover most nearly what it is to be. I have walked out of the body and into the mountain. I am a manifestation of its total life.
© Nan Shepherd, 1977. Extract from The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland reproduced on behalf of Canongate Books Ltd.
8. Best Friend
Sensitivity Consultant: Laura Elliott
This song is dedicated to walkers who are tough in ways others don’t always understand.
(Spoken)
NARRATOR: A disabled hiker and their service dog, named Stickeen, are out on a mountain trail.
(Sung)
(Hot sun,
Dry air,
Dusty path,
Gentle breeze.)
Don’t pet him, please.
C’mon, Stickeen—
(Bird song,
Airplane,
Insect hum,
Rattle seeds.)
Don’t pet him, please.
(He’s not here for you.)
No more questions, please.
(I’m not here for you.)
Now it’s just us, Stickeen.
Let’s keep going.
(Quench thirst,
Check map,
Sniff ground,
Hold leash.
Heart pumps,
Blood hot,
Deep breath,
Aching feet.)
(Take a rest.)
Best friend,
You live up to your namesake:
John Muir’s little mountaineer.
Two great dogs, but
Different strengths.
Muir and his dog—
They could do anything;
The toughest athletes of their time. But,
You and me,
We know there are many different ways to be tough;
Yeah, there are many different ways to be tough.
And we are tough!
(Long stride,
Leash tug,
Perked ears,
Warm tongue.)
(On days like this,
I feel like myself.
I’m not here for them;
I’m only here for me—
And my best friend.
My best friend.)
9. Street Haunting
Text by Virginia Woolf
The hour should be the evening and the season winter, for in winter the champagne brightness of the air and the sociability of the streets are grateful. […] The evening hour, too, gives us the irresponsibility which darkness and lamplight bestow. We are no longer quite ourselves. As we step out of the house on a fine evening between four and six, we shed the self our friends know us by and become part of that vast republican army of anonymous trampers, whose society is so agreeable after the solitude of one’s own room. […] To escape is the greatest of pleasures; street haunting in winter the greatest of adventures.
© Virginia Woolf. Extract from Street Haunting (1927) used by permission of The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of Virginia Woolf.
10. Woman Walking
Lyrics by Megan Cohen
This song is dedicated to women who walk the city.
(Spoken)
NARRATOR: A woman saunters on city streets, taking it all in and going nowhere in particular.
(Sung)
A pair of men, walking.
Another man, walking.
Oh, look: a man. Walking.
A woman!
… jogging.
Why are the women always jogging gotta get someplace, lose five pounds, yoga mat, never stop, work the job then jog home clean the house paint the nails do it all on hard cement.
Oh, look: a man. Standing.
Watching the woman jogging.
Watching the woman jogging.
I do not go jogging.
I take my time.
Dallying on every corner; cars stop for me.
In the window my reflection; I stop for me.
Sensual pleasure of a worn awning, painted sign,
a crowded place then sudden quiet on another block.
Miles and elevation
Cannot map the living city.
I live with, in, on, the city.
Smell it like a lover’s neck
Except the perfume of garbage.
Oh look, some men walking.
And there’s a man walking.
He watches me walking.
He says “Where you goin’?”
But I just keep walking.
Look down and keep going.
I’m going everywhere before I go home.
Taste the pavement like an oyster under every step.
A bit of sky between two buildings; it has time and so do I.
“Woman Walking” © Nell Shaw Cohen & Megan Cohen.
11. Rare Bird
Sensitivity Consultant: Dr. Kassandra Ford
This duet is dedicated to walkers for whom being outdoors alone isn’t always safe.
(Spoken)
NARRATOR: Two friends stroll in a suburb, identifying birds together.
(Sung)
BIRDER 1: Binoculars?
BIRDER 2: Check. Field guide?
B. 1: Check. Water,
B. 2: Sunscreen,
B. 1: Trail mix,
BOTH: Check check check!
B. 2: Seems like nobody walks in the suburbs—
BOTH: Except for us!
B. 1: It’s hardly pristine wilderness,
But we’ll take what we can get.
B. 2: I hear a boisterous Blue Jay barking.
BOTH: Birding is better together.
B. 2: You ID most species quicker than me!
B. 1: I see a ravenous Red-tailed Hawk out scouting for squirrels.
BOTH: Birding is better together.
B. 1: And you know I would never go alone.
B. 1: Listen! My favorite forager: the Tufted Titmouse.
B. 2: We are his only audience.
B. 1: Seems like nobody walks in the suburbs—
BOTH: Except for us!
B. 1: And you know I would never go alone…
…As a Black man,
In this neighborhood.
With wary eyes watching
From windows and lawns,
I can’t be seen lingering
In the wrong place,
At the wrong time.
BOTH: Birding is safer together—
B. 1: For a rare bird like me.
B. 2: Wait—
Would you look at that!
B. 1: It’s an Indigo Bunting!
B. 2: That brilliant blue…
B. 1: An iridescent hue…
B. 2: I’ve never seen one before
In this neighborhood.
B. 1: A rare bird,
A rare bird like me.
12. Where There Was No Path
Text by John Clare
I dreaded walking where there was no path
And pressed with cautious tread the meadow swath
And always turned to look with wary eye
And always feared the owner coming by;
Yet everything about where I had gone
Appeared so beautiful I ventured on
And when I gained the road where all are free
I fancied every stranger frowned at me
And every kinder look appeared to say
“You’ve been on trespass in your walk today.”
I’ve often thought, the day appeared so fine,
How beautiful if such a place were mine;
But, having naught, I never feel alone
And cannot use another’s as my own.
13. Trespassing
This song is dedicated to walkers whose homelands have become someone else’s property.
(Sung)
NARRATOR: A man rambles through a countryside of contested ownership, reclaiming his ancestral landscape.
(Spoken)
Done with another long week of labor.
My day is free—
I’ll spend it rambling!
Up the hill,
Out on the moor,
Through the wood,
Over the stream,
Lost in my daydream…
Over there,
I see the spot where my ancestors slept.
(Grandfather, Grandmother,
I feel you with me at every step.)
I’ll take a closer look,
Though I’ll be trespassing…
How could love of the land
Make me a criminal?
Our storied countryside
Severed by borders.
How did our ancient home
Became the rich man’s playground?
He can say it’s his property.
But today,
My feet, my sweat, and my time are my property!
So, I’ll spend them rambling!
Up the hill,
Out on the moor,
Through the wood,
Over the stream,
Lost in my daydream…
Grandfather, Grandmother,
I feel you with me at every step
In the spot where my ancestors slept.
14. Solid Ground
This duet is dedicated to walkers who seek their purpose in the routes of the past.
(Spoken)
NARRATOR: While grieving the loss of his father, a man retraces a migration route once followed by his ancestors.
(Sung)
MAN:
What winding path did our family take
To make this life we lead?
When I asked,
You would only say:
“The past is in the past.”
It did not seem to matter all that much
When I was young;
But now you’ve left me on my own,
I search for solid ground.
(Spoken)
Meanwhile, in the distant past, his ancestor dreams of future generations as she nears her journey’s end.
(Sung)
ANCESTOR:
This winding path must our family take
To make the life you’ll lead.
When you ask,
I hope they will say:
“We’re grateful for our past.”
BOTH: It did not seem to matter all that much
When I was young;
M: But now you’ve left me on my own,
A: But now I’ve left our only home,
BOTH: I search for solid ground…
M: I’ve traveled hundreds of miles of highways,
Through overpass and under hill,
To find myself here at the start.
A strange, remote place
Where I retrace their steps.
A: I’ve traveled hundreds of miles of pathways,
Through mountain pass and under hill,
To find myself here at the end.
BOTH: A strange, remote place
M: Where I retrace their steps.
A: Where I will face what’s next.
M: Straining to sense their presence here.
A: Struggling to have faith in my choice.
M: Grasping for clarity past the fear!
A: Dreaming of a future life…
BOTH: Shadows of experience
Extend beyond our time,
Inscribed with a line in the land.
(CHOIR repeats)
CHOIR:
To feel our soles press firm against the dirt—
To know that we are all part of this earth—
It is a miracle.
BOTH: One step at a time,
I search for what is mine.
I find solid ground.
15. Their Stories (Reprise)
If walking is an essential way of being—
Free and unafraid
As our full, solitary selves—
Then who may claim the right to be in this world?
They are the walkers who are longing,
Who are searching,
Who are becoming themselves.
And these are their ways of walking.
These are their stories.
16. Quotation from John Francis
“Part of the mystery of walking is that the destination is inside us and we really don’t know when we arrive until we arrive.” —John Francis
Used by permission of John Francis (Planetwalk.org).
17. Epilogue: Fallen Star
Lyrics by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen
This song is dedicated to walkers searching for home.
(Spoken)
NARRATOR: A wanderer walks across the American West, the big, starry sky overhead.
(Sung)
A black moon’s hanging in the sky tonight
So many stars light this old road
Friends shining down on a lonely life
I’m a fallen star, just tryna walk home
Walking through town in Abilene
A woman stumbles out for a cigarette
She’s got Venus written on her jacket back
Cold brown eyes tell you where she’s been
Who’s the brightest star tonight?
Venus rises first before all the rest
She’s got a funny way
With that knowing smile
She hangs low in the sky
Just to catch my eye
I say, “What’re you doin’
on a night like this?”
She says—
—“Whaddya care?
You’re just a fallen star.”
I say, “You sure are pretty
when you’re bein’ mean.”
She gives me a wink
That’s worth all her smiles…
Whole lotta stars still light this road
Friends shining down on a lonely life
I’m a fallen star, just tryna walk home
I’m in a little diner in Santa Fe
The waitress brings me a piece of pie
The name “Callisto” is on her little tag
She’s dead on her feet with hours to go
Who’s pointing out the North Star light?
Callisto in the sky is gonna show the way
She’s got a little boy she goes home to
She feeds him on dreams of better days
I say, “Hey Big Dipper, what’s goin’ on?”
She says—
—“A whole lotta nothin’, what’s it to you?”
“Is that your son in the picture frame?”
Her heart opens wide and her eyes light up—
There’s so many people in the sky tonight
So many stories, so many worlds
They’re all movin’ round, no end in sight
But they take the time to light my road
Friends shining down on a lonely life
On this fallen star just tryna get home
Once in a while there’s a full moon bright
Can’t see no stars in that kinda light
Those days it’s harder to keep up the faith
And I wonder if home is a real place…
“Fallen Star” © Nell Shaw Cohen & Mashup Mushtaq Deen.
“Their Stories,” “First Footsteps,” “Further Out, Deeper In,” “Just Because,” “Best Friend,” “Rare Bird,” “Trespassing,” “Solid Ground,” “Their Stories (Reprise),” and all songs dedications and introductions, © 2023 Nell Shaw Cohen.
Sauntering Songs is published by Faraway Nearby (ASCAP).
Transform the World with Beauty
Composer’s Program Note
Transform the World with Beauty, commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble, is inspired by the flowering of visual art and poetry in Victorian Britain during the 1840s-1870s.
“My First Camera” celebrates avant-garde photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. In my adaptation of an excerpt from Cameron’s autobiography, this pioneering artist describes the power of her creative impulse when she first took up the camera as a 48-year-old wife and mother.
“In an Artist’s Studio” is a setting of a poem by Christina Rossetti. She offers an incisive, feminist critique of her brother, Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and his obsessive depictions of an idealized woman.
The final, title movement is inspired by the work and ideas of William Morris. The botanical and mythological titles of Morris’ sensuous textiles and wallpaper designs are juxtaposed with lofty sentiments from his philosophical lectures and essays. These two strands of Morris’ world, disparate at first, come together into a hopeful vision of society “transformed” through the beauty of nature and art.
—Nell Shaw Cohen, Composer
Texts
18. My First Camera
Text by Julia Margaret Camera
My first camera
A gift from those I loved
My departed daughter and her husband
“It may amuse you, Mother.”
I handled my lens with tender ardour
It became a living thing
With memory and voice and creative vigour
Longing to arrest all beauty
I turned my coal-house into my dark room
I turned my fowl house into my glass house
The society of hens and chickens
Changed for poets, prophets, and painters
When I have them before my camera
My whole soul endeavors to record
The greatness of the inner man
As well as the outer man
The photograph becomes a prayer
19. In an Artist’s Studio
Text by Christina Rossetti
One face looks out from all his canvases,
One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:
We found her hidden just behind those screens,
That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
A queen in opal or in ruby dress,
A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens,
A saint, an angel — every canvas means
The same one meaning, neither more or less.
He feeds upon her face by day and night,
And she with true kind eyes looks back on him,
Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:
Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;
Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.
20. Transform the World with Beauty
Text by the composer based on quotations from William Morris, and the titles of his textile and wallpaper designs.
Flowerpot
Marigold
Daisy
Larkspur
Lotus
Seaweed
Blossom
Poppy
Have nothing in your houses
which you do not know to be useful
or believe to be beautiful
Beauty is a positive necessity of life
Daffodil
Rabbit
Tulip
Rose
Transform the world with beauty
Flowerpot
Marigold
Daisy
Larkspur
Lotus
Seaweed
Blossom
Poppy
Daffodil
Brother Rabbit
Garden Tulip
Rose
Artichoke
Sunflower
Sweet Briar
Trellis
Transform the world with beauty
Peacock and Dragon
Bird and Anenome
Strawberry Thief
Honeysuckle
Chrysanthemum
Beauty is a positive necessity of life
Art made by the people for the people
Transform the world with beauty
Transform the World with Beauty is published by Faraway Nearby (ASCAP).