“Lacrimosa: Charleston (Mother Emanuel, Walter Scott)”
Book Excerpt: Everyone Begotten, Everything Holy (Poems and Libretto)
Lacrimosa: Charleston (Mother Emanuel, Walter Scott)
(for SATB chorus)
Left alone to—scream in
Language without vowel
Only the gut—the guttural, clicking
Of tongue against teeth—rolling Rs
At the backs of minds blurring
Breaking news—wars, filthy lucre
Shots in the backs of black men
Resonant bone of hurricane
And house of worship—bullets riddling
Charleston—death-cold and drenching
The angel oak bitter and bleeding
Sorrow breaking on the October battery.
This is where the requiem begins,
In a wreck at the Four Corners of Law.
—
Conductor’s Note
Broken sonnet should be sung by SATB chorus, who think of this tragedy and those like it as they sing or listen to the Brahms, Fauré and Mozart requiems.
Copyright © 2026 by Dana Malone. Excerpted from Everyone Begotten, Everything Holy (Poems and Libretto) (April Gloaming Publishing). Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
Dana Malone drew upon the experiences of her musical studies and her journalism and speechwriting career to create the poems in Everyone Begotten, Everything Holy (Poems and Libretto). She also is the author of Mother. Grave. Ghost. (Finishing Line Press, 2022).
