{"id":2140,"date":"2023-02-03T22:37:05","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T22:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.northstarmusicllc.com\/?post_type=product&#038;p=2140"},"modified":"2025-02-01T11:11:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-01T16:11:44","slug":"everywhere-is-archipelago","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.northstarmusicllc.com\/index.php\/product\/everywhere-is-archipelago\/","title":{"rendered":"Everywhere is Archipelago"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Everywhere is Archipelago\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nv5RuQhPFq4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong><u>From the Very First, Not a Thing Is<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Seen at a distance, at dusk in the glade<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">near the pond, two forms\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Two forms. Rounded. Bulky. Smooth<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">as a haunch of stone.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Why have I never before, by daylight, seen them<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">there in the lonely forest?<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">One of the boulders<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">raises its head from the ground this afternoon\u2019s<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">light confirmed was a pied scatter, leaves<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">yellow and red over<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">tufts of newly sown grass, a fine silk green.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">I lift my head in reply,<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">then continue to graze,<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><em>with\u00a0<\/em>them, the smell of the damp earth raw and comforting,<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">no sound but the ripping out of the earth<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">winter rye, like a seam<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">ripped, or a hem, let out because the child<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">has grown taller.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">It is a moment as far away as my mother\u2019s hand<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Dipping into her sewing basket<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">for a thread, a moment whose over and under stitching<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">is as close as the lush steppes<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">of Asia, rippling lightly, just under<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">the shadowed sleeve of my loosely worn coat.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><strong><u><span style=\"text-decoration: none;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><strong><u>Dirt<\/u><\/strong><br \/>\nBecause a red gash of it becomes poppies and dame\u2019s rocket<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Because it shields the dead as they undress<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Because along the rim of the cattail pond, rain softens it<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Because it is a rainbow, embedded<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Because it is the\u00a0<em>basso continuo\u00a0<\/em>of pussytoes, earthworms, nomads and wheat<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Because the exposed root of the oak tree rumples it,<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and deer and fox and wood thrush write on it with different feet<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Because it erases the wheel that ruts it, the plow that seams it open<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Because an old woman, removed from her homeland, carries it with her\u2013<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a fistful of earth<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">in a mason jar whose blue-tinted glass becomes a hologram of sky around<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the dust of her ancestors<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Because into rain-softened mud a child has pressed her bare feet and learned<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the weight of her presence<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Because more than one woman has bedded her man, saying, \u201cI am good soil<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0for marriage\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Because dirt is a greater philosopher than Plato\u2013 for whom the distant edge<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0of the field along a skyline was<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">merely the shadow of a more luminous line on which the mind might compose<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0strophic measures<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Because I cannot step out of my body and must walk the field, each inch,<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0as it changes to woodland and ridge<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0mountain and the slow erosion of mountains into the plain<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Because I must walk the milky way of the prairie at night and feel its surge<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and flow change to gumbo and gully, arroyo<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">scour hole, fell-field, and meadow\u2013<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">I praise the dirt: storehouse, grantor of ground and horizon, not the Source,<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0but its guardian<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Beneath gender and hierarchy, beneath any division of labor, it continues,<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0despite our nooks and walls, boundaries and treaties<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">It is what gives and receives, outlasts us, and\u00a0<em>is<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12.0pt 0in;\"><strong><u><span style=\"text-decoration: none;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><strong><u>Coyote<\/u><\/strong><br \/>\nThe owl belongs to Athene, the coyote to no one.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Not to the winter belly of the dark,<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">in which I hear the one and many voices of coyote<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">lift and circle. Not even to the moon.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">When I want to join in,<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I open the kitchen door<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">and yip a little. How the woods fall silent then!<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Not until the door clicks shut and I stand there<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">as if in a trance, listening, do they begin again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Are they afraid of me? Or does my interruption<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">of their litanies constitute plain rudeness?<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><em>Who does she think she is?<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But it\u2019s the intimate<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">swirl, those high-pitched, rapturous interrogatives,<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">cries that lift out of a dark too deep for words\u2013<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">it\u2019s the tongue that flicks the hollow of my throat,<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">just here<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0along the branching collarbone\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">that\u2019s the song that belongs to no one.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><em>You know who you are. This is your song, too.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12.0pt 0in;\"><strong><u><span style=\"text-decoration: none;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><strong><u>Global Warming<\/u><\/strong><br \/>\nEven so, it\u2019s a cold spring<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">I unroll the map of the watershed, and my fingers trace the blue<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0threads of the rivers<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">as I\u2019d touch the veins on your throat<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">You chant\u00a0<em>kalmia latifolia\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0pinus silvestris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0geum odoratissimum<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">as if you might travel once more the fresh land of the Choctaw<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and the Creek,<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">as if the hooves of your horse, like Bartram\u2019s, might splash red<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0with the juice of the trampled berries<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">We fill the gas tank, chart the wobble of the earth, its tilt,<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the shape of its orbit<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">The words we taste\u2013\u00a0<em>Milankovich, albedo\u2013<\/em>\u00a0melt on my tongue<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0like the Greenland ice sheet<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Hear the beat of the drum? That\u2019s my heart.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><em>Come now let us reason together<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><em>Because the honeycreeper<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><em>Because a bag of bones on a museum shelf in Mauritius\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><em>Because clouds thicken like swam gas in the marshlands<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><em>Because the fetus will not ripen<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><em>Because the relict trillium, and the tanager, and the wren<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><em>Because the solar flare of blackflies on your skin<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><em>Because the kestrel<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><em>Because\u00a0<\/em>peach orchard<em>\u00a0is a memory of mildew, ash blue<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><em>Because the fetus will not ripen<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\"><em>Because earth everywhere is archipelago<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">Because we taste the words. Because we taste the words<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and they stick in our throats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><span class=\"innerContentContainer\">[dflip id=\"4154\" type=\"thumb\" ]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" align=\"center\"><b>Program Note<\/b><\/p>\n<p>My friend, Terri Eckel, commissioned me back in 2021 to set poetry by her favorite poet, Margaret Gibson, Connecticut\u2019s\u00a0<em>Poet Laureate<\/em>. I completed this set in March of 2022. As a student of John Luther Adams her poetry reminded me of his environmental activism. Gibson\u2019s words celebrate natures serenity, sublimity, and absurdity, and in these stirring studies, she reminds us of our duty as guardians. I found the poetry both intensely beautiful and challenging. While getting to know this text, I had to research landforms, plant species, and famous physicists, but through the cerebral text I could always feel Gibson\u2019s singing poetic voice, guiding me to the final double-bar. I like to think that when one sings this cycle they become the celebrant to an environmental liturgy in the cathedral of our natural world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2143,"template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[52,42,25],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-2140","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-emerson-eads","product_cat-individual-songs","product_cat-soprano","first","instock","purchasable","product-type-variable"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northstarmusicllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/2140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northstarmusicllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northstarmusicllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northstarmusicllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northstarmusicllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northstarmusicllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=2140"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northstarmusicllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=2140"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northstarmusicllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=2140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}