Description
Order from Boosey & Hawkes or music retailer.
SSAB, flute, piano. Duration: 4’30”. Also available for treble voices: A Garden of My Own (SA or SSA).
Listen
(Boosey & Hawkes promo recording excerpt)
View score on distributor website.
Composer’s Notes
This is an arrangement of a lovely tune and text by Patricia McKernon Runkle. She originally wrote the song in the ’90’s to honor Rosalie Wahl, the first woman to serve on the Minnesota Supreme Court, upon the occasion of her retirement. This choral setting was commissioned by Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis and premiered in the fall of 2003 by the Plymouth Youth Choir with Patricia conducting. Here is the text:
(Refrain:)
There’s a place where dreams are gathered, There’s a soil where seeds are sown,
There’s a light beyond the shadows where truths are known.
In this light I reach for heaven, In this soil I root my soul,
In this place I have a garden of my own.
Time was I was up at dawn and eager for the field,
Time was I was welded to the plough,
Time was I would work as hard as flesh and bone allow
Till the glory of the harvest was revealed.
These days I am on my knees with flowers in my hands,
These days I refuse to plant in rows,
These days I can feel a seedling tremble as it grows,
And the heartland deep within me understands.
Who knows whether time and quiet faith bring something new,
Who knows if I learn to improvise?
Who knows if a flower never seen before will rise
And the world will be the richer for its hue?
