by Alberto Álvaro Ríos (b. 1952)
When Giving Is All We Have
Language: English
One river gives
Its journey to the next.
We give because someone gave to us.
We give because nobody gave to us.
We give because giving has changed us.
We give because giving could have changed us...
Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet,
Big, though small, diamond in wood-nails...
Giving is, first and every time, hand to hand,
Mine to yours, yours to mine.
You gave me blue and I gave you yellow.
Together we are simple green...
together, we made
Something greater from the difference.
Text Authorship:
- by Alberto Álvaro Ríos (b. 1952) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Emily Feld , "When Giving Is All We Have", copyright © 2019, first performed 2019 [ satb chorus and piano ], MusicSpoke
Score: MusicSpoke [external link]  [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2026-08-30
Line count: 14
Word count: 90