Thaw
Written for Trio Alexander (flute, viola, harp), this piece is a response to Imtiaz Dharmker's poem Thaw about the deepening winter at the solstice. It was premiered in Rochester, NY in November 2018.
Workshop recording and score available on request.
Thaw:
The day blows a fuse
You walk out
Your breath a snowstorm
Surging round your mouth
Your tracks, a baffled argument in black and white
Outside has switched to night too soon
The window loses sight of you
And turns into a mirror in mid-afternoon
You come back in, frost filaments in your hair
Eyebrows picked out in crystal Every fibre on your coat is live
Sleeves and shoulders pricked with ice and pi[o]nts of light
You are electric
You breathe the outside in
The whole room shocked into winter
You smell of cold, my face close up to yours
I’m singed, locked into you
This early night fall, this dark too soon
Untimely as it is takes us straight to bed,
Throws back the sheet and draws us in
To thaw your frozen feet between my feet.
Imtiaz Dharker
Workshop recording and score available on request.
Thaw:
The day blows a fuse
You walk out
Your breath a snowstorm
Surging round your mouth
Your tracks, a baffled argument in black and white
Outside has switched to night too soon
The window loses sight of you
And turns into a mirror in mid-afternoon
You come back in, frost filaments in your hair
Eyebrows picked out in crystal Every fibre on your coat is live
Sleeves and shoulders pricked with ice and pi[o]nts of light
You are electric
You breathe the outside in
The whole room shocked into winter
You smell of cold, my face close up to yours
I’m singed, locked into you
This early night fall, this dark too soon
Untimely as it is takes us straight to bed,
Throws back the sheet and draws us in
To thaw your frozen feet between my feet.
Imtiaz Dharker