This meditation on mortality was composed for the versatile singers of Choral Arts Initiative, weaving solos in and out of the texture to create an orchestra of voices. The movements range from questioning and doubt (“How”) to introspection (“Relinquishment”) to ultimate acceptance of our own mortality (“When at Last”). Ultimately, How to Go On finds beauty and catharsis in the embrace of everyday life, offering up solace in the words of three living poets—Crooker, Amy Fleury, and Laura Foley— and in music. The three compositions that follow move from grief to how we cope with life’s everyday challenges. In the Middle (Track 9) for chorus & piano sets another poem by Crooker about our need to connect “in the middle / of a life that’s as complicated as everyone else’s.” Lodestar (Track 10) for soprano soloist & chorus sets a contemporary fable by Diane Thiel. In references to fairy tales (“a trail of crumbs”) and children’s songs (“how you wonder what you are”), the narrator comes to a quiet acceptance of her own strength and limitations. After the Storm Passes (Track 11) features a sinuous journey on the wind and a return to poetry by Crooker. In this piece, solo voices weave throughout the texture again as a storm leaves us “on the rim of summer... washed again in this bright loud light.”