URGE is a work for baritone and orchestra, co-commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Aspen Music Festival and School, written for the baritone Will Liverman to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States.
Tracy K. Smith wrote a new poem for the occasion. I simply set it in the way that it spoke to me. I hesitate to say more, as I prefer to let Tracy’s words speak for themselves and let listeners interpret them and my response freely.
With much gratitude to Tracy, Will, and my esteemed orchestral collaborators.
URGE
The path is old. Ferns. Barbed shrubs, bars
of daylight starred with dogwood fluff. I see
olive trees with dark pointed leaves and want
to make a gift. I grant peace. I grant joy.
I offer myself to be gathered into any arms,
every breast, all alive now or contemplating
touching down upon the glory and calamity
of this planet. Come. Stand. Walk with me away
from the trampled path out into the spiderwebs
beaded with dew. Lift the hem of your dress
as we veer toward lime white painted trees.
I don’t know what to believe about danger.
I don’t recognize the sounds of judgment.
In this language I understand only as song
in wind. Perhaps I am invisible, anomalous,
but I believe I exist. I unravel the long braid
of my ancestry. I shake history free. This island’s
stones have decoded the lines of my feet.
The sea whose bright fish stole sweet sips
of my flesh will remember me. Fate is rain.
Love is a covenant we must fulfill again, again.
Take my hand. Venture with me farther, even
if we lose the trail. I’ve swallowed goblets
of wrung cloud. I’m a full jug, a cracked cup.
Nothing is private. Watch me squat down now
to water these weeds, humble and obedient
like all the other animals.
