1: And it came to pass
     that it was the morning of Christmas
     and I was on a plane
     and I slept
     and I awoke
     and -- this is true --
       the pilot said,
2:     "For those of you from Texas,
         we have just crossed the Red River
         and have entered the Promised Land."
      
1: We who have gathered here,
3:   we poets, 
2:      players, 
3:       voices, 
2:      and listeners,
1:   come together now
2:     to speak and not to speak,
3:     to sound and not to sound,
1:     drawing beauty from our surroundings,
2:        and, we hope, 
         returning beauty to it,
1:   as we move 
3:       about, 
2:       within, 
3:       between 
1:     these cities
2:     in this week of sounding,
1:     dancing on the millenium's edge
3:       as we look ahead and beyond.
      
2: Listen now:
     this is an extraordinary moment.
3: Listen now:
     this is an extraordinary moment.
     
2:   An arbitrary moment,
3:     named by men 
1:       and inscribed by machines
2:     a movement from nines to zeros,
3:     from fullness to expectation,
2:     from fear of facing the future
         to a grand unknowing

3:    An accidental moment,
1:     this Sabbath of our century,
3:     as we watch a decade's sunlight fade,
2:     and look forward to the morning
1:       blessed by these computers
           to which we give our stewardship,
2:       or by their hidden code betrayed,
3:     glancing at our oracles,
2:       as if each bit, each pixel tells
1:         of omens of a future 
3:         for whose imminence we wait.
      
2:   We wait,
       the hopeful by the fireplaces,
1:     the fearful in their shelters,
3:     the watchful by their monitors,
2:     the vengeful hovering by the controls
1:       of their devices
3:       of their destruction
         
2:   We wait
3:     for the dropping of the ball
1:     for the waves of midnights 
         to sweep across the planet's face
3:     for the possible end 
         of everything we know
1:       as Luddite fantasies spin their fate
           across this electronic world
2:       as planes fall from the sky,
3:       banks explode from overflows of cash,
2:       and two-headed calves roam the aisles
           of looted, gaping Stop and Go's,
3:       speaking of apocalypse 
1:         to anyone whose VCR 
             has not eaten them in shame,
             
3: And when none of this happens,
2:   when the world does not collapse,
1:   when life goes on pretty much as it was,
2:   when, after a hiccup,
1:     flights continue to leapfrog timezones
2:     and the Net continues to expand,
         connecting the essential and the trivial,
3:     we will look back 
2:       and wonder about this moment,
1:       and what it was we worried about,
3:     and remember how we celebrated this moment,
2:       when it seemed so much
         would end or would begin.
         
1: But here, but now,
     in this extraordinary moment,
     we have gathered,
2:     drawn by voices, 
3:     drawn by friends, 
2:     or drawn by chance,
         just happening to be here,
1:   we speak, 
3:       sing, 
2:       play, 
3:       and listen
2:     for the spirit of the present moment,
1:     at the edge of our imaginings,
       in this dance 
3:       of our becomings,
2:       of probabilities.
    
1: We are here, 
2:   dancing on the millenium's edge,
3:     between word and music
2:     between content and form
3:     between times that passed
         and times that will come
1:     between the sacred,
2:       the sacred and 
3:       the sacred,
2:     between meaning and effect.
   
1: We are here,
2:   dancing on the millenium's edge,
1:     spinning webs with our
         voices, 
3:       words, 
2:       and machines,
1:     reaching out and reaching inside,
2:     watching left and right dissolve,
3:       perhaps into new dichotomies,
2:       perhaps themselves to disappear,
1:         hearing accelerating orbits
2:           transmuting East and West,
3:             from the klezmer bands of Tokyo
2:             to the zendos of L.A.
               
1: We are here, 
2:   dancing on the millenium's edge,
1:     and no words can say 
         what we need
2:     and no sounds portray
         what we mean
1:     and no dance,
3:       save the dance of probabilities
2:         within this hidden future,
3:         within the electron's shell,
         can display
2:         what we see,
3:         what we feel,
2:         what we believe,
1:     except this:
       
2: Listen now:
     this is an extraordinary moment,
3:     as is the next,
2:     as is the next,
1:   and when you leave here,
       keep on listening,
3:       gently,
2:       deeply,
3:       constantly.
2:   dancing at the millenium's edge
1:     toward all the extraordinary
         moments to come.