Songs from Rosemerry (3 pieces)

15 minutes

  • SATB choir

“First Pink” was commissioned by The Crossing and Donald Nally, conductor. The commissioning of the Jeff Quartets by The Crossing was made possible by the support of the Ann Stookey Fund for New Music.

“Synapse” and “Yet Another Layer” were commissioned by the Ars Nova Singers as part of the Shared Visions project.

First Pink by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

In the loss
is a branch
with a brittle
stem
where an old
fruit hangs
rust-colored
and dried
beside
a tight cluster
of rose-tipped buds
where something
fragile
and persistent
is just
beginning
to open.

Synapse by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

We are perhaps like neurons
that never touch—
but that doesn’t stop
the chemical buzz,
the lightning charge,
the electric thrill
that leaps the gap—
and in that span
all meaning is made,
long red ropes of memory
twisting and knotting,
braiding, unbraiding,
and nothing
is ever the same.

Yet Another Layer by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Steeping so long
in this coat of shoulds
I forgot it was on

’til, slipping out by accident,
I see it hanging separate
while I stand bare

and strangely new,
wondering what this
naked soul can do.

ChoirPaul FowlerSATB