Ball of Wax 63 Songs: Sceneries, Placements – “Handful of Hope”

I don’t know if Sceneries, Placements were thinking of Emily Dickinson when they concocted the delicately peculiar “Handful of Hope,” but the first thing that came to my mind as I pondered the title, and this piece, was the phrase “Hope is the thing with feathers.” I went and found the full poem, and it really does feel like this piece is a musical representation of it. As I sit here listening I can just imagine holding this little bird in my hand, this feathery embodiment of hope, watching it flex and flutter, hearing it coo and tweet, until, at last, it lifts off, never having asked a crumb of me.