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  1. In Absence

From the recording In Absence

This powerful love poem presented me with some significant challenges, musically speaking, especially the convoluted syntax coupled with the enjambed lines toward the end.  I worried about using the archaic word "fagot" (as in a bundle of sticks) in a contemporary song.

Lyrics

In Absence
 
 
I call in the cold and silence, I speak your name
And hear no answer but echo, and ache with grief.
Find me in fire, for love, in the flickering flame
Fed by fagot and leaf.
 
Whenever the rose lifts resolute in spring
Find me, for love, in each unfolding petal;
In the greening leaf, in every living thing
Know me a little.
 
Breathe me, for love, in breathing the common air;
Of spirit or matter, of all things find me part.
Greet me in absence, for love, for I am there;
And in your heart
 
Keep me, O Love, as near as the constant flood
Washing its chambers.  Wear me, for warmth, as close
In the channels of ivory mazing your leaping blood
As your warm blood flows.