Seare Ahmad Farhat

Moved by the Beauty of the Trees

for Jean Bernard Cerin and the Cornell Festival Chamber Orchestra

Text by Ishion Hutchinson, from House of Lords and Commons:

The beauty of the trees stills her;
she is stillness staring at the leaves,
still and green and keeping up the sky;
their beauty stills her and she is quiet
in her stare, her eyes’ long lashes curve
and keep, her little mouth opens
and keeps still with its quiet for the beauty
of the trees, their leaves, the sky
and its blue quiet, very still and quiet;
her looking eyes wide, deep, silent
hard on the trees and the beauty
of the sky, the green of the leaves.