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Her Name is Sorrow

from Kraina by Anselm McDonnell

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lyrics

Text by Anna A. Friedrich © 2022 Commissioned by Anselm McDonnell

Thank you she said
it like a question
while we walked along
ocean, creek, tributary

— made no difference —

our conversation was all
chemistry — alkali
and acid: elemental sisters warring,
waiting — we their mediators.

Taking my hand, she made me
hold the life gone from a starfish, then took

my arm and led me to Jennette’s pier, now decrepit?
She took my eyes and told me I’d be fine

in heaven blind — she took my eyes! —
one in each enormous hand

and chucked them in the sea so I might
see the coral reef’s white bones
she mused

then left me on the beachrock
shouting like Bartimaeus.

My eyeballs floated
in the flotsam before one sank
in the drink; it must have been
my weightier eye — serious, tireless, landing
long after in a bathyal baleen
whale fall.

The other — my light-hearted eye
rushed into a shallow current
rich with a community
of pink and purple plastic.

Above the sea, the rest of me sat down
in defeat. Soaked by unexpected waves
— not tears, my eyes were lost, recall — I cried

out with the seagulls
Sorrow! Sorrow!
until I sensed her presence —

mercy, shame, again
she said Thank you — her voice
wide and deep inside a yawn. The tide
came up to tuck her in

to bring the night’s oblivion
that makes the day’s woes

bearable — its acid
and its alkaline — she slept,
I think. And I awoke.

credits

from Kraina, released February 23, 2024
Dermot Dunne - accordion
Joshua Ellicott - tenor
Laura Sinnerton - viola
Richard Brown - recording engineer

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Anselm McDonnell Belfast, UK

Anselm McDonnell is a composer of Irish/Welsh heritage based in Belfast, who has composed over ninety pieces for orchestra, chamber groups, choirs, soloists and electronics. A diverse range of interests have led to the creation of work in collaboration with rap artists, lighting designers, theologians, poets, filmmakers, improvising musicians, fashion designers, dancers, and actors. ... more

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