Song Catcher

Out of the somewhere and into the here

Songs from the Spirit still visit my ear

They flow through my heart and then into my hand

Voicing new groanings I can’t understand

The songs are a gift and so I pass them on

I could not create them -they come from beyond

Within a night’s silence or some wandering way

They say what they mean and they mean what they say

I am a songcatcher and not by my choice

But I’ll take the gift and I’ll sing with my voice

Receive them with awe and then in turn rejoice

For the songcatcher receives what God gives

The songcatcher’s changed by holy harmonies

Meditations and musings o’er divine melodies

Of pilgrims and aliens and demons and dreams

Of faintings and cryings and joys and screams

A receiver is first a believer you see

And the songs are a journal of my joyous journey

Places you may have been or are yet to be

Places where we’re bound and are being set free.

I am a songcatcher and not by my choice

But I’ll take the gift and I’ll sing with my voice

Receive them with awe and then in turn rejoice

For the songcatcher receives what God gives

Anthony Foster

October 14, 2002