In my musical writing I haven't attempted much with text. The things that I have done essentially came with a text -- a hymn arrangement with the words out of the hymnal or a setting of a psalm or song from the bible. The couple times I've used words from the bible I've freely paraphrased them to create my own text.
What I haven't done is to pore over books of poetry and set those words to music. Reading lots of poetry for the few poems that would suit me just didn't strike me as fun way to pass an afternoon.
Apparently, there is one place I haven't considered that could be a gold mine (at least of ideas). Back in April of 2009 there were public hearings on whether Maine should adopt gay marriage. WWII veteran Philip Spooner gave a 4 minute testimony in favor of gay marriage. His memorable phrase was "What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?" He said he fought for freedom and equality of all people. He has a gay son and he made sure that son was as loved as the other three. The video of his speech became a YouTube hit.
Composer Melissa Dunphy created a work for choir using Spooner's testimony. The Simon Carrington Chamber Singers held a composition contest and named Dumphy's work the winner, declaring it to be the strongest and most individual. This page has the videos of both Spooner's speech and Dunphy's music. Beautiful music. And they're singing it in Kansas!
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