To Paulette

Poem by Joanna Dales For Paulette Meier

And have you taught the Quakers how to sing?
Us Quakers, who for more than twelve-score years
Have stilled our voices and made deaf our ears
To music, lest it hinder focussing
Upon the Light within, life’s seed and spring.
We were mistaken: you have stilled our fears,
By opening a way to joy and tears,
Setting our hearts budding and blossoming.

Would Fox or Fell or Nayler have found fault
With us, that in a dark and frightening stage
Of the earth’s life we seek to temper rage
By singing words they taught us – so to assault
Evil and hate with love, acting as salt
Of the world, as they did in their different age?

Joanna says ‘This sonnet celebrates the work of Paulette Meier. As some Friends will know, Paulette has set to music some of the most memorable sayings of George Fox, Isaac Penington and other early Friends. She has led workshops teaching us how to chant them.’

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