let us know

The fun guys at Alaska Quarterly Review asked me earlier this summer to make a song from a work that they planned to publish in the fall.  The poem, Let Us Know, is by Knute Skinner of County Clare, Ireland.  It was an interesting experience - a blessing, really - to get to put someone else's thoughtful words to music; I found myself wondering what Knute would think of my interpretation, and also wondering how the song would have turned out differently had it been a more actively collaborative project.  I also found myself thankful for the impetus to take on a project like this.

Yesterday morning I recorded at the studio and I like the results.  Someday I'd like to add cello and violin, which is what I hear in my head while I'm singing the song.  {What I see in my head is a moonlit night on a grassy hill on the Irish coast, with a wispy young person bravely and joyfully setting out into the night.} 

Here's the poem.  I'll let you know when it's available to listen online.  Or just check in on the AQR website.

Let Us Know
by Knute Skinner

Let us know how it goes,
That hill looks calm tonight
where the new moon barely shows.


You move on sportive toes 
and laugh in the evening light.
Let us know how it goes. 

The high horizon glows 
in fading Fahrenheit
where the new moon barely shows


and the oath obligingly goes,
whetting your appetite.
Let us know how it goes.


God alone only knows
-and even God, not quite-
where the new moon barely shows,


but you, a stranger to woes,
would haste to impending height.
Let us know how it goes
where the new moon barely shows.