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Description
An a cappella setting for mixed chorus of a poem by the composer. Difficulty: 4/5. Duration: 5' 15".
Text
Napili Bay, 2PM
And now the hour of sun has come
when the sea is adorned with diamonds,
a chemise of spun silver slung
about her undulant shoulders.
She swells and roars with love, birthing
heads of swimmers, silhouetted,
floating slowly toward the shore
where bodies form to stretch and splay upon the sand.
We are water creatures, dwelling
on a water planet, curled from
cells that gel and mingle, immersed,
’til born on a breaking wave, we surf
into the world, thirsty as hell,
eager to nurse at water-fed milk-white springs.
Yet water may become an enemy,
to the mind inclined to dryness:
we can’t abide the tide, we try
to avoid the rain, umbrella-ed,
’til inside again we drink it in
in cupfuls ‘til it swills and spills in tears.
Then water-crossed and baptized, we are
blessed and tested with vineblood,
cleansed, renewed against an end
where all is dry, dust-dry,
all evaporated to the sky.
And even then, sky swells with grace,
rain-seed swims through space
to seek the sea’s embrace.
And now the hour of sun has come
when the sea is adorned with diamonds.
Thanksgiving 2002
— J.A.C. Redford (1953- )
Copyright ©2002 by J.A.C. Redford. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Commission and Performance History
Napili Bay, 2PM was commissioned by Zephyr: Voices Unbound and premiered on 28 March 2003 in Pasadena, CA.
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