by Russell Conwell Hoban (1925 - 2011)
The Owl‑Woman
Language: English
“Do you love me?” says the owl-woman, long legs reaching for the ground as she lands, yellow eyes burning into mine. Snowy white and speckled brown she is, from the North she comes to my dreams and says, “Do you love me?” always the same, from the North, where the ice bear swims in the sea, miles from the land, never lost. “Yes,” I say, “I love you.” “Do you think I am beautiful?” says the owl-woman, sunlight through her wings, turning and turning, yellow eyes burning. “Say it,” she says “Yes,” I say, “you are beautiful.” “I know,” she says. “Now you can sleep.”
Text Authorship:
- by Russell Conwell Hoban (1925 - 2011) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Lynne Plowman (b. 1969), "The Owl-Woman", 2017, copyright © 2017 [ tenor and harp ], from Songs of the Sea Dreamer, no. 4, Composers Edition
Publisher: Composers Edition [external link]  [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2026-08-05
Line count: 14
Word count: 105