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Testy Pony is a setting of a poem by the Portland-based poet Zachary Schomburg which landed in my in-box days before the first River Project concert in 2010. I think the poem beautifully embodies something of the emotional complexity of the journey, perhaps of all journeys.

lyrics

I am given a pony for my birthday, but it is the wrong kind of pony. It is the kind of pony that won't listen. It is testy. When I ask it to go left, it goes right. When I ask it to run, it sleeps on its side in the tall grass. So when I ask it to jump us over the river into the field I have never before been, I have every reason to believe it will fail, that we will be swept down the river to our deaths. It is a fate for which I am prepared. The blame of our death will rest with the testy pony, and with that, I will be remembered with reverence, and the pony will be remembered with great anger. But with me on its back, the testy pony rears and approaches the river with unfettered bravery. Its leap is glorious. It clears the river with ease, not even getting its pony hooves wet. And then there we are on the other side of the river, the sun going down, the pony circling, looking for something to eat in the dirt. Real trust is to do so in the face of clear doubt, and to trust is to love. This is my failure, and for that I cannot be forgiven.

credits

from Songs from the River Project, Volume 2, released November 1, 2012
Hamilton Cheifetz, cello; Eve Beglarian, voice and electronics Text by Zachary Schomburg

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Eve Beglarian Brandon, Vermont

"Ms. Beglarian kayaked and bicycled the length of the Mississippi River [and] has translated her findings into music of sophisticated rusticity… [Her] Americana song cycle captures those swift currents as vividly as Mark Twain did. The works waft gracefully on her handsome folk croon and varied folk instrumentation as mysterious as their inspiration." -The New York Times ... more

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