May Dean's Message

Some people use the term “listening” to describe the quality of receptivity in an audience.  Performers develop an intuitive sense of how they are being received.  When the listening decays, it is time to stop.  Some even speak of “managing the listening.”

This last month, the listening struck back, so taking the advice of a well-intentioned but anonymous reader, I’m sparing us all the long copy this month.

Before I go, may I add the deanly enjoinders to greet newcomers, attend all chapter events and concerts, and get involved, etc.  These opportunities are described fully in this
Newsletter.

By way of partial apology, I append this poem of Jessica Powers, suitable for the season:

You are drunk, but not with wine  (Isaiah 51:21)

O God of too much giving, whence is this
inebriation that possesses me,
that the staid road now wanders all amiss
and that the wind walks much too giddily,
clutching a bush for balance, or a tree?
How then can dignity and pride endure
with such inordinate mirth upon the land,
when steps and speech are somewhat insecure
and the light heart is wholly out of hand?

If there be indecorum in my songs,
fasten the blame where it rightly belongs;
on him who offered me too many cups
of his most potent goodness—not on me,
a peasant who, because a king was host,
drank out of courtesy.

Carry on, and be of good cheer,

David Locke, dean