Voices

Song Cycle by Carol Barnett (b. 1949)

1. Identity Poem #1
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
I am the forest, full
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Nancy Cox , "Identity Poem #1", copyright ©

Go to the general single-text view

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

2. Even Feminists Falter
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
I am waiting here
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Nancy Cox , "Even Feminists Falter", copyright ©

Go to the general single-text view

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

3. Love Poem for Tim
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
I anchor myself in your body
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

Go to the general single-text view

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

4. Identity Poem #4
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
I am the mermaid
who saved the prince.
He thinks it was that other woman.

I am not alone:
at night my sisters
rise to the surface of the waves.
They sing to me
of knives and blood.

I love and I wait
without knowing
of anything else to do.

I walk with the prince
in the garden
and cannot speak.
The slicing pain
in my strange new feet
never stops,
but I dance.

I grieve for the days
of water,
the days when I did not know
the game of excuses,
betrayal,
the burden of walking,
the sweat of unexplained hope.

To be foam on the sea
will be just as good
as loving and waiting
and dancing and grieving
and having no home
and no tongue.

Text Authorship:

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

5. I didn’t know
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
I didn’t know
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Nancy Cox , "I didn’t know", copyright ©

Go to the general single-text view

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.
Total word count: 534