W. S. Merwin’s poetry has been a constant in my adult life. His words bring me comfort in times of anxiety, smiles in times of happiness, and comfort in times of grief. 2020/21 brought difficult times for all of us, and I once again found myself turning to Merwin’s words.
I rarely know exactly what his poetry means, but I love how they make me feel.This was no different for the poem that inspired my viola concerto, I wake in the dark and remember. As I was writing, I rolled over the imagery in my mind: “wake in the dark and remember,” “listening to the black hour,” “you are asleep beside me while around us the trees full of night lean,” etc. These images are so vivid and clear yet they lack any strict narrative, so my imagination became free to run wild and see the sounds the words inspire.
The concerto is in two movements but played without a break.
I wake in the dark and remember was commissioned by an international consortium of universities led by Damon Talley and the Louisiana State University. It is dedicated with great admiration and gratitude to the extraordinary violist Kimberly Sparr, who gave the premiere.
Below is the W.S. Merwin poem that inspired this concerto. Please take a moment to read these words and listen to the sounds they provoke in your own imagination.
by W.S. Merwin
I wake in the dark and remember
it is the morning when I must start
by myself on the journey
I lie listening to the black hour
before dawn and you are
still asleep beside me while
around us the trees of night lean
hushed in their dream that bears
us up asleep and awake then I hear
drops falling one by one into the sightless leaves and I do not know when they began but
all at once there is no sound but rain
and the stream below us roaring
away into the rushing darkness
From !e Essential W.S. Merwin, courtesy Copper Canyon Press, copyright W.W. Merwin, 2019.