I chose the text for A Reminder (2010), by contemporary poet Robin Myers, for its vivid images of a city in a storm and its gorgeous portrayal of calm acceptance. I was particularly struck by how, as the rain transforms the city, the speaker of the poem undergoes her own transformation. This text seemed inherently musical to me, not just in the possibilities of developing the storm imagery— which is largely depicted within the aleatoric piano writing—but also in evoking a moment where the moment itself is enough.

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This piece was originally premiered for treble chorus & piano by the USC Oriana Choir. The art song arrangement was premiered by Gillian Hollis & Dale Trumbore on their album The Gleam.

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This piece will be available soon through Graphite Marketplace.

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A REMINDER

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Suddenly, a world of rain,
the city warm and dark with it.
A sky that splits and heals without
a wound. Water blooming from the trees,

your dress a skin on you. Mouth
and hands that are enough, that give
no more or less than their own warmth
cooled by rain, which is enough.

Streetlamps calm as planets
that have left their orbits to join,
briefly, ours. The wet earth learning
to take on their light.

If, in the years to come, you are ever asked
if you knew a moment of tenderness
without pain, no umbrella held against
the fall of loss, no loss, not yet, all raining,

all enough, then the answer is
you did. There was. Say yes.
 

—Robin Myers

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