Oh the Comfort

You get a pdf of the score, an mp3 of the recording, and rehearsal tracks of each of the vocal parts. In the Amidons’ book & CD ‘‘Twenty-five Anthems for Interfaith & Community Choirs‘ Sung here by the Friends-of-the-Amidons-Singers, Mary Alice soloist. English novelist and poet Dinah Mulock Craik published this poem in her 1859 collection “A Life for a Life”.

LYRICS

Oh the Comfort
adapted from the Dinah Mulock Craik poem by Peter Amidon

Oh, the comfort, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort,
of feeling safe with another, of feeling safe with you.
I don’t weight thoughts nor measure words,
but pour them out, chaff and grain,
just as they are;

Knowing that a faithful hand will
take them, and sift them,
keep what is worth keeping,
and with the breath of kindness,
and with the breath of kindness,
and with the breath of kindness,
blow the rest away.

The original poem
Oh the Comfort
by Dinah Mulock Craik
from “A Life for a Life” (1859)

Oh the comfort
The inexpressible comfort
of feeling safe with a person;
having neither to weigh thoughts
nor measure words,
but pour them all out
just as they are
chaff and grain together –

Knowing that a faithful hand
will take and sift them,
Keep what is worth keeping
and with the breath of kindness
blow the rest away . . .