Mother

Description

This is a poem about reflections: the sun’s reflection in the moon, a child’s reflection in a mirror, a swan’s reflection in the water, starlight reflected on a wall. The speaker describes her mother as one who gives an ethereal beauty to a child’s image of themselves, not just returning their image but transfiguring and magnifying it. These reflections are imperfect: the mirror is cracked, the water is moving, the wall is grey. It is as if our memory is foggy, our recollections are impressionistic. Though we cannot remember exactly, we retain the sensation of a mother’s love. I have sought to heighten these many imperfect reflections in this piece, by including many reflections in musical time and space.