Dear—

Program Notes

This poignant text by Donika Kelly was brought forward by members of the Coastal Sound Youth Choir as part of a collaborative commission project. I got to sit down with members of the choir and discuss why this and other texts spoke to them, and together we discovered so much in this poem. The words depict two lovers who are different in some ways but come from the same soil. The speaker yearns for there to be a better word that equally represents the breadth and importance of the two as individuals, as well as the intimate sum of the part that comes together.

Text

Dear— - Donika Kelly

I am not land or timber

nor are you

ocean or celestial body,

but rather we are

the small animals

we have always been.

The land and the sea

know each other

at the threshold

where they meet,

as we know something

of one another,

having shown,

at different times,

some bit of flesh,

some feeling.

We call the showing

knowing instead of practice.

We seem to say,

at different times,

A feeling comes.

What is the metaphor

for two animals

sharing the same space?

Marriage?

We share a practice,

you and I,

a series of postures.

Here is how I

become a tree

[ ]

and you

[ ]

a body in space.

Premiered 15/06/2024 by Coastal Sound Youth Choir dir. Will de Sousa, New Westminster Christian Reformed Church, BC. Pending recording.