I thank you God

Every now and again, at this time of year, we get a brilliantly sunny and mild day which seems to defy the seasons and is filled with light and warmth, giving us a foretaste of the spring and summer to come and even, if you are so minded, of the glory of God and the world He created and holds in being.

Below is the composer Eric Whitacre's setting of this poem by e e cummings, not normally one of my favourite poets but here he gets it just right.

i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything

wich is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth

day of life and love and wings:and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any-lifted from the no

of all nothing-human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)