Ashes

GEOFFREY PETERSON

49 views

Chorus

2023

6 min.

Alto

Bass

Soprano

Tenor

Program Notes: Ashes was completed in March 2023. The text was written by my brother, Christopher Peterson, who is Associate Professor of Literature at Western Sydney University. The poem concerns the loss of his close friend, Ailsa. The music is elegiac in character, but progresses toward joy and transcendence. Ashes We scattered her ashes last Sunday, gazing at the harbour, standing silently as they too stood, carried by the calm current. They slowly parted one another, though not fully fading, tarrying just below the surface, like a ghost uncertain it wants to depart. I imagine them never sinking to the bottom, floating forever as they disperse across the harbour and, farther eastward, forever floating on the azure Pacific waves.