MOVEMENTS

1. Old Woman, Eskimo

2. Skokie River Cadenzas

3. Reading Da Leaves

4. God and Gravity

5. Sylvia, Aloft

6. Elizabeth, The Rain

7. Lake Song

PROGRAM NOTE

When I met poet Colette Inez at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in summer 2007, her glowing presence, striking sense of humor, quick mind and gift for word-play all charmed me beyond expression.  From her powerfully positive nature, I'd have never imagined that she came from such a stormy beginning: an orphan from Belgium brought to the U.S. at age eight to live with a disturbed and ultimately abusive family (imagine a time when a suggested treatment for clinical depression was the adoption of a child).  Profoundly moved by her memoir The Secret of M. Dulong, I spent the summer ruminating both on her path and on the impulses in me inspired by her story: to help, to adopt, to befriend, to offer some of my family heirlooms since she herself had so painfully few (after finally finding her birth mother, Colette writes to her "If you would choose to give me something your mother gave you, something of sentimental value, I would deeply appreciate it" but receives no response to the request.)

In processing Colette's story, I came to recognize that all of these first impulses of mine were utterly ridiculous: a strong and accomplished poet, Colette did not need my help; a mid-career artist by the time I was born, she certainly did not need adopting; a much-loved soul, she didn't even need my friendship, though I felt grateful that she accepted it; and, as for heirlooms: Colette made her own. In the lifetime of poems that she has written and shared with the world, Colette created a new kind of heirloom.  From this life's work, I have assembled the collection that serves as text for the 15 minute song cycle Colette's Heirlooms.

Colette's Heirlooms, for treble voices, is dedicated with admiration, respect and friendship to Colette Inez.  I extend my gratitude and appreciation to The ASCAP Foundation / Charles Kingsford Fund for commissioning the work.

TEXT

1. Old Woman, Eskimo

Her singing makes

the rain fall.

Her sewing brings clouds.

When she stops sewing,

the green weather comes.

When she stops singing,

the white weather comes full of smooth threads

to sew up her song.

She has seen birth,

children waiting

for their names.

When she stops seeing,

the snow needles come

sewing the land

to the hem of the sky.

In her dream she is

a bone needle

that will not thread.

The hides come undone

all her songs are gone

inside the rain

for her children

to hear later on.

2. Skokie River Cadenzas

What is to come sleeps in the bud

now tilting upwards towards a thinning light.

Later, as I trace the path, the river passes

out of sight.

3. Reading Da Leaves

what do you want

gimme a little something

before I start

you gonna write a lucky poem

that make you rich

in da dark I see big ship

you gonna meet this moviestar

I see in da leaves

you gonna have a long journey

in da fall da jackpot is yours

because of da poem

wait I see your poem on TV

you got a hit show

gods gotta make it right

gimme a little more

my mother got a bad heart

I can tell by your hand

you the kind of person

like to have fun with your brains

da moviestar is gonna love you

and you gonna read him da poem

but he has a bad heart

and has an attack

then you get an idea for this big poem

I don't have change for a ten

it's gonna be okay

4. God and Gravity

[song without words]

5. Sylvia, Aloft

God and gravity

will not change

their laws of flight

to pull her back

to the window ledge.

Her lament is at an end,

gone with the blue wind

blowing past

the ailanthus

in a morning

that shrugged

its shoulders,

as if it were routine

to see legs

scissor into air,

a robe's pink blotch

dart downward,

followed by

a fantail

of waved hair,

flicking past

the kitchen windows

of neighbors

who were not looking

up or out,

and did not believe

in angels.

6. Elizabeth, The Rain

softens the earth where you've fallen

far beyond the talk

of souls becoming birds-

Elizabeth, which bird is yours?

Sand hill crane, high flyer, bright crow?

Is it they who have taken you away from me?

Or a sandpiper at the lip of the foam

where seabirds pray to rain

as another dominion of water?

Each day more souls fly in swarms

pulled by the sun and moon

above your stone-a green swell before the splash,

rainsoaked, distant grass

where clouds in flight console you,

but not the uproar in me at your leaving.

7. Lake Song

Every day our name is changed,

say stones colliding into waves.

Go read our names on the shore,

say waves colliding into stones.

Birds over water call their names

to each other again and again

to say where they are.

Where have you been, my small bird?

I know our names will change one day

to stones in a field

of anemones and lavender.

Before you read the farthest wave,

before our shadows disappear

in a starry blur, call out your name

to say where we are.

- Colette Inez

Text Permissions

Old Woman, Eskimo; Skokie River Cadenzas; and Lake Song © Copyright 1993 Colette Inez

Reading Da Leaves; Sylvia, Aloft; and Elizabeth, the Rain © Copyright 2004 Colette Inez
Used by permission of the author.