Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Simon Holt
a song of crocuses and lightning (1989)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Commissioned by London Weekend Television for the South Bank Show Arts Review of 1989
- hn/hp/va.db
- Soprano
- 4 min
- Raymond Carver
- English
Programme Note
A song of crocuses and lightning is a simple setting of the Raymond Carver poem Two Worlds. I wrote it at the end of 1989 as a memorial to Michael Vyner who had been a great support and friend over the previous ten or so years. It's scored for soprano with horn, harp, viola and double bass and lasts approximately four minutes.
© Simon Holt, 2002.
Two Worlds
In air heavy
with odor of crocuses,
sensual smell of crocuses,
I watch a lemon sun disappear,
a sea change blue
to olive black.
I watch lightning leap from Asia as
sleeping,
my love stirs and breathes and
sleeps again,
part of this world and yet
part that.
Raymond Carver
© Simon Holt, 2002.
Two Worlds
In air heavy
with odor of crocuses,
sensual smell of crocuses,
I watch a lemon sun disappear,
a sea change blue
to olive black.
I watch lightning leap from Asia as
sleeping,
my love stirs and breathes and
sleeps again,
part of this world and yet
part that.
Raymond Carver