Sudden Music, © 2006, Javen Tanner

"Sudden Music"

Four songs for soprano and piano by Lansing McLoskey
texts by Javen Tanner

Sudden Music

1.
Look at the generous spread of stars before us,
the sporadic fire of the past, the larger shadow beyond.
Look at the throw of juniper burning into nothing,
the chipped bricks, the warped wood,
the shingles bleached under a heavy moon.
Listen to the names whispered into pillows,
names we loved or never knew we loved,
names that dripped from the corners of our lips as we slept.
Listen in darkness to the sudden music of loss.
2.
Let desire escape and rise as smoke from the burning cedar.
Watch it lift into the mute density of winter
and rub itself on the black layer
that separates voice from sound, breath from prayer—
smoke blurring the outline of the body
with the stillness that ensues;
smoke continuing through the nakedness
of branches, to hover in the valley,
to thin with the smoke of other desires.
3.
Consider the snow and its slow work,
dressing dead orchards, dulling our sense of what was
until we can no longer say with conviction,
"They were apple trees, it was summer."
Consider this and be content with winter: the cool wisdom
blown across the ear, the patches of bloodless grass.
Because if memory is anything it is dirty banks of snow
or rancid ice decaying into water. And what remains
is suspect at best. It will not be able to comfort us.
4.
Look at the frost growing its white mold
on the window, clouding the periphery, focusing
our attention on that which escapes us—
on that which has always escaped us. Let it go.
Let go of the fire, the shadow, the disappearing smoke.
Let go of names dried as stains on our pillows.
Fall a little, flinch and settle into dreams just under
the surface of sleep. Listen to the muffled voices above.
They sing, "Please, please," but from here it sounds like "peace."

© 2006, Javen Tanner. Published in Curses For Your Sake, Mormon Artists Group Press,
New York City, 2006. Used with permission of author and Mormon Artists Group.