What is Going, What is Coming
Song Setting of Poetry by J.D. McClatchy
for Mezzo Soprano, SATB Ensemble & Piano
by Susan J. Fischer
Performance
New York Composers Circle Concert
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street, New York City
Michaela Mechlovitz Soloist mezzo-soprano
Kathleen Mulready soprano, Amanda Farley alto,
Luis Gutierrez tenor, Philip Allen bass, Craig Ketter piano
What is Going, What is Coming
What is going, what is coming,
What will not come, what cannot go.
Whatever change you were considering,
Do not plant another tree in the garden.
One more tree means four seasons of sadness:
Is going, is coming, what will not come,
Is going, is coming, what cannot go.
Here in bed, through the south window,
I see the moon watching us both.
Someone’s hand around its clump of light,
Yours? I know you’re sitting out there,
Looking at the silver bloom against the black.
Is going, is coming, what will not come,
Is going, is coming, what cannot go.
That drop from your cup on the night sky’s
Lacquer you wipe away with your sleeve,
As if its pleated thickets were the wide space between us.
Though you know as well as I do,
This autumn is no different from the last.
What is going, what is coming,
We do not know, we do not know.
*Title & lyrics adapted with permission from A Chinese Poem
by J.D. McClatchy.
