Santa Barbara poet Teddy Macker’s dedication to removing the ambiguity from his work inspired my own creative work for two pianos and choir. When asked what he believed to be poetry’s role in our world today, Macker responded poetry can help people see again. Within his poetry collection This World, one poem, “Halo of Dust,” struck me for two reasons: it’s lengthiness, and how it addresses a spiritual topic secularly. “Halo of Dust” presents several vignettes of seminal moments in Saint Francis of Assisi’s work that tested Francis’s dedication to love and compassion. The poem shifts between verse and prose, and transitions between scenes without preparation. By using extended piano techniques and vocal strategies not common within the European choral tradition, this setting of Macker’s “Halo of Dust” musically portrays these moments of introspection and wisdom that Saint Francis experiences within the text to capture the “seeing” quality, but in sound.