The Investment

On a text by Robert Frost

Over back where they speak of life as staying
('You couldn't call it living, for it ain't'),
There was an old, old house renewed with paint,
And in it a piano loudly playing.

Out in the plowed ground in the cold a digger,
Among unearthed potatoes standing still,
Was counting winter dinners, one a hill,
With half an ear to the piano's vigor.

All that piano and new paint back there,
Was it some money suddenly come into?
Or some extravagance young love had been to?
Or old love on an impulse not to care--

Not to sink under being man and wife,
But get some color and music out of life? 

The Investment was a commission by James Holleman at Hillsdale College to commemorate Debbi Wise’s 40 years of service as Accompanist and Assistant Conductor of choirs at Hillsdale College. The poem is perfectly appropriate, as Debbie’s husband, a farmer and reciter of poetry, offered her a unique engagement present: a grand piano. The musical language is accessible and the somewhat fragmented piano part is meant to represent a pianist practicing in the distance as the farmer takes breaks from working in the field to listen, with great love and appreciation.