Voices and Apparitions
2016
7 min.
Poem-song for soprano and fixed multichannel playback. Written for Rosie K.
Voices and Apparitions
text by Christopher Douthitt
No
Omened
Or neume-pierced
Veil, no fossils
Scattered thin across
Sunken fields, nor pitchblende-
Hidden ore, nor greenish glow
In foggy glass; no secret scrawl.
To know would be — weighted terms — to know
Past proving grounds, past atoms split,
But the sure pull of numbers
On the thing, which is there
And not, clear as air,
Unencumbered:
A closed all
Opened
On.
Apparitions in the optic nerve,
Like wreckage on sunlit waters,
Elude the earnest plotters
Of spasmed event: surge
Buckshot through blancmange!
Starlings, converge!
That such traps
Don’t snap,
See
Unfixed
Erratic
Beast-things springing
From any nested whole.
So, sudden data singing:
The floor of frozen faces
Concatenates - no, imbricates! -
Inert input - splash! - a dozen vases.