RESIDENT POETRY

by Anne Ormand

The Essence of Joy

Laurel Federbush

Laurel Federbush is a harpist with a Bachelor of Music in Harp Performance from the University of Toronto, and Master's and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Michigan. Her repertoire includes classical, Celtic, and contemporary music. Ms. Federbush often performs in musical ensembles such as the Jackson Symphony, the Southern Great Lakes Symphony, the Warren Symphony, the Rochester Symphony, and other groups throughout southeastern Michigan.

Joel Schoenhals

Joel Schoenhals is Professor of Piano at Eastern Michigan University and Foreign Expert at Central China Normal University in Wuhan, Hubei, China. Schoenhals holds a Master of Music, Doctoral of Musical Arts, and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. He earned his undergraduate degree in piano performance at Vanderbilt University. From 19982010, he was a faculty member of the Summer Piano Program at the Chautauqua Music Festival in Chautauqua, New York.

Brain Plasticity Ukulele Collective

An intergenerational group of musicians (currently 35-85 years young) encompassing all styles, genres and levels of ability. As one member puts it, “Community, learning, and laughter form the band’s heart and soul while furthering the imagination of our collective possibilities and our tonal and cognitive strength. As studies have shown, by sharing music and learning how to play a new instrument, you can drop a brain bomb, fire up the synapses, and rewire some neural pathways. In other words, along with the fun we are having, our brains are ge ing a great workout.” You might see some familiar faces performing in the band, perhaps one of your neighbors!

It is not enough to live, one must also enjoy life For some this is easy, for some it is difficult, for some impossible, and this is the saddest of all, To ignore the red promise of sunrise, the white joy of snow, the blue rapture of the sky the golden warmth of afternoon, the refreshing coolness of dusk,

All Seasons, Alive, Alive--oh

(Sung to the tune of Cockles and Mussels

Sweet Molly Malone)

In All Seasons fair city, where things are so pre y, we laugh, and do our part to remain young-at-heart, We roll our Rollators on paths small and greater, crying, "we're from All Seasons, Alive, alive-oh, Alive, alive-oh, Alive, alive-oh, Crying, we're from All Seasons, Alive, alive-oh!”

To look but not see, to listen but not hear, to touch but not feel.

If man will not, God cannot, and this is the saddest of all.