WILLOW

mvt. 19 from “The Lost Words”

Home 9 Composers 9 MONICA PEARCE 9 WILLOW

Cypress Choral Music · Willow – by Monica Pearce – #19 from “The Lost Words”

featuring Elektra Women’s Choir with chamber instruments: director – Morna Edmundson
accompaniment options – piano only or with flute, clarinet, violin and cello

LYRICS

Willow, when the wind blows so your branches billow,

O will you whisper while we listen so we learn what

words your long leaves loosen?

If you whisper when the wind blows so your branches

billow, willow, we will listen for a day, a week, a year,

till we know what willows say, what willows speak.

Lean in, listeners, come below our leaves and wait until
the wind blows so our branches billow, listen for a year,
a week, a day, but you will never hear what willows speak,

what willows say.

Long you linger, listeners, hard you press your ears against

our bark, but you will never sense our sap, and you will

never speak in leaves, or put down roots into the rot –

for we are willow and you are not.

O open up your heartwood to us will you, willow, show

us your deep within, your rough without, your water-

brushing bough, your shoot, your grain, your knot?

We will never whisper to you, listeners, nor speak, nor shout,

and even if you learn to utter alder, elder, poplar, aspen,

you will never know a word of willow – for we are willow

and you are not.