Immigrants – song and choral piece

Hello Colleagues,

I have been on this exchange for some time but never made a post. I’d like to introduce myself. I’m a composer with a long track record and I have a song that I think many folks would be interested to sing at this momentous time in our nation’s history. 

“Immigrants” is a lyrical and not very difficult song, set for SATB (I could make some other arrangement if provoked). It says we’re all immigrants, and welcome traveler. Everyone, even those we consider indigenous, have migrated so they say. Here are the lyrics, two original verses and you’ll recognize the 3rd verse as by Emma Lazarus, written on the Statue of Liberty. Choirs have loved this, I hope you will too. 

For background, I was a long time member of the Paul Winter Consort and wrote a good deal of our “Missa Gaia/Earth Mass,” that is published by Hal Leonard, along with others. The poetry in my songs is my own as well. My hymns are included in the last two Unitarian Universalist Hymnbooks. I created the”Earth and Spirit Songbook” an anthology of 110 songs of Earth and Peace by many composers. That and my choral pieces are available on my website, JimScottMusic.com (I admit it’s a work in progress). 

In peace, Jim Scott      JimScottMusic.com

Immigrants    © 2018  Jim Scott (with verse from Emma Lazarus)

We are but immigrants, refugees from ports unknown, 

Seeds we sow with dreams and hope will not ever be our own.

Our children’s paths not ours, but adventures theirs alone.    

We are wanderers and seekers for the passage safely home.

Of salt and water born, of one ocean we are made.

Gifts of love from fertile soil, so is life’s foundation laid.

Find rest and refuge here, though our wandering never done.

May this haven bless all journeys, welcome traveler, we are one.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

For those yearning to breathe free,  refuse of your teeming shore.
Send the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!