Contradictions of Endurance (2022)


for SATB Choir. Duration: 4 mins.

Set to the poem by Joan Jennings (1946-2001)

Balanced precariously
On the knife-edge of a rock,
The climber’s endurance
Is severely tested.

Likewise the explorer
Who travels to remote places
Surviving moments of terror,
Of deprivation,
Of cold, hunger and fear.

When they return
We praise them,
Look with amazement
At their achievements.

The man or woman
Without a house,
Someone to love them,
Enough money for food and warmth,
Is scorned –
Blamed for their own state
Of misery.

What kind of world is this
That rewards deliberate tasks
Of endurance,
Yet ignores the daily distress
Of those outside the mainstream,
Struggling to stay alive
So that someday their gifts
May be recognised?