HOLD IT UP TO THE LIGHT

Solo 1: “Hold it up to the light!”

All: He said

The small boy had to lift his head

To see all the color of the sky

Coming through glass to meet his eye.

Solo 1: The glass was blue, and red, and blue.

The boy took on the color, too,

Or gave it with his wondering sight.

The color of the sky was light.

All: For an instant he was everyone,

All brothers of the brother sun

Who stare up from the floor to find

Meaning beyond the moment’s mind.

Solo 1: The man who held the glass up stood

Quizzical, tender, patient, good,

All: With mischief and with mystery

Explaining what a boy might see

On whom the light shines through glass

That changes it and lets it pass.

Solo 1: Yet all he did to glass to change

The everlasting light from above

Had been to color it with

All: love, Faith, beauty, heart, hands, head—

Solo 1: “Hold it up to the light”

All: he said.

Bright is the firebrand borne in the hand

Of a torch bearer

To lighten the way of a people.

Giving power to their heart

To dream themselves of the stars

Guide and control their own destinies

Under the heavens.