“Carry Me”, Laments for a Modern World, No.1 (premiered 2023, online)
Composer: Ai Horton (b. 1997)
Librettist: Anna Eastland (b. 1980)
You carry me above the waters
lest I drown in my sorrows
And it is safe
to let my heart break
because it falls
into your hands
And though it feels
shattered and broken
yet your love
my heart can heal
So carry me
above the waters
and make my heart
arise anew
“Sharks”, Laments for a Modern World, No. 2 (premiered 2023, online)
Composer: Ai Horton (b. 1997)
Librettist: Tim Tim Chen (b. 1993)
Inside me, inside me,
the world was too loud.
Highways contracted and
spat out nails on the ground.
My child, my child,
grapple with my dark,
my fury throbbing
in the mouth of a shark.
Inside me, inside me,
the world was not the same.
Cops dragged me by the hair.
Ambulances never came.
My child, my child,
grapple with my dark,
my fury throbbing
in the mouth of a shark.
“Autumn Oud”, Laments for a Modern World, No. 3 (premiered 2023, online)
Composer: Ai Horton (b. 1997)
Librettist: Tom Clark (born c. 1974)
I am that sorrow
you dreamt of yesterday,
oh pillowfriend, apple
of my streaming eye.
My childhood was filled
with what all dreams become
in the long run, filled as
your two cupped hands poured on.
I invite all friends
to partake of mine without
discrimination, bringing
here each one as one.
Since one is all,
this, then, is my call:
does your sorrow last? Weep in me!
Foreign leaves must fall.
“something pulls me up”, Laments for a Modern World, No. 4 (premiered 2023, online)
Composer: Ai Horton (b. 1997)
Librettist: Tanisha Nuttall (b. 1994)
I stand on the shore, dipping my toes
Knowing I’m much farther out there, in the unknown
It’s always been this way, you see
My body is here
But my mind roams free
The storms get weary and I’m about to give up
I start to sink under but something pulls me up
Maybe it’s remembering my feet, sinking into the sand
But most times it’s my loved ones, who put out their hand.