‘a letter to myself’

Soprano and Piano

Poem by Elizabeth Hansen
Music by Aric Vyhmeister

Sabina Balsamo, soprano; Aric Vyhmeister, piano

‘a letter to myself’ | Elizabeth Hansen

as the sultry dew musk

resting upon dark-stone

crowns the morning with

glitz and gold,

the impish wind

so too does youth

crown age's dawn

tussles the hair of a lonely bushblooms

its bloomsbreaks

its branchesand

if love is but a fractured bone

then do not love to fracture again

the roots of the forest may

always whisper wisdom

ever fading

and if words will

evade, hide, dance,

away like little cat tails,

dance! hide! evade!

alongside them.

in the distance chimes a bell

as though time awakens

suspended in fire