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A Winter of Flowers

for voice and piano

Amy Scurria

Text by Margaret Holley

A Song Cycle in Four Movements

I. Polished Thorns
And it’s true, isn’t it?
On the earth,
That the flowers etched with color
And the cactus thorns,
Are one single thing.
That seeing the whitest light
Without the gown of blackness
Would be without perception.
To love and not touch pain
Is nothing more than a fleeting comfort.
II. An Invitation to Happiness
And when you touch the sun
Its light seems to beckon you to happiness
So that happiness when it’s done right
Is a kind of holiness
Beside the bright stars
Kissed by their grand and stately sleep
I am cleansed and cleansed in the heaven of God’s pure light.
III. A Discovery
I wanted to turn and run away
I wanted the future to be better than the past
I wanted this child to laugh in freedom
Like a breeze, like the rain
Like a bird taking flight
As it soars beyond the cliff
An explosion,
An unearthing.
I wanted to run into the light of the moon.
I longed to know,
Whoever I was,
I was alive!
And the child was free.
IV. Spring Azures
In spring the bright colors reach out
To the edges of shallow puddles
To spread the new felt freshness
Then they rise and float away into the sun
Sometimes the great plans of my life
Feel so heavy.
And all the traps my body knows
The opposable thumbs
The kneecaps
And the mind clicking and clicking
Don’t seem enough to carry me through this life.
And I think, how I would like to have wings
Bright ones
Whirlwinds of sound
How I would like to open them and rise
Toward the bright sky, singing
Of the life in my imagination.

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