Performances Dates:

Friday, July 20 at 8 pm
Saturday, July 21 at 8 pm

Alicia Bachorik 
Faults from How Do I Love Thee?
Text by: Sara Teasdale

They came to tell your fault to me;
They named them over and over, one by one.
I laughed aloud when they were done,
I knew them all so well before,-
Oh, they were blind, too blind to see
Your faults had made me love you more.

William Bolcom
Amor
Text by: Arnold Weinstein

It wasn’t the policeman’s fault
In all the traffic roar.
Instead of shouting “Halt” when he saw me,
He shouted, “Amor.”

Even the ice cream man - 
Free ice creams by the score.
Instead of shouting “butter pecan”
One look at me - he shouted “amor.”

All over town it went that way,
Everybody took off the day,
Even philosophers understood
How good was the good ‘cause I looked so good.

The poor stopped taking less,
The rich stopped needing more,
Instead of shouting “no” and “yes”
Both looking at me shouted “amor.”

My stay in town was cut short.
I was dragged to court!
The judge said I disturbed the peace,
And the jury gave him what for.

The judge raised his hand,
And instead of desist and cease,
Judgey came to the stand, he took my hand,
And whispered, “Amor.”

Night was turning into day,
I walked alone, away.
Never see that town again.
But as I passed the church house door,
Instead of singing “amen”
The choir was singing “amor.”

John Bucchino
Song with the Violins
Text by: John Bucchino

I play the same record again and again,
Hoping you’ll walk in to the song with the violins.
I trust you’ve memorized your script.
I’ve got my part down perfectly but it’s so hard to concentrate on my lines,
I can’t hear myself think over the song with the violins.

It’s getting late, have you missed the turnoff or lost my number?
I know your new number by heart.
Your motorcycle worries me.
One slip and you’ll miss the suntan I got for you,
The house I cleaned for you, the shirt I pressed, the tight new jeans
And the song with the violins. 

Impatience is tapping my foot, shaking my head, making me reach for the phone.
Disappointment is tearing my eyes, shaking my words, taking me back to the first time you hurt me.

And on how we play the same record again and again,
Falling in step to the song with the violins.
I’ve choreographed this lovely dance,
And you with your two left feet stepping all over the Fred-and-Ginger possibilities.
Bumping the needle, leaving a gaping, hissing scratch in my favorite song:
The song with the violins.

Lee Kesselman
I am writing poetry from FACES
Text by: Amanda Riva

I am writing poetry
I am a sick writer
Backwards and written already
And Inclined to shock, inclined to numb. 
Designed to love, made to hurt. 
Loved to be, being loved.
Bugging bugs
Till they surrender and shoot themselves
With their lead
In their own little bug heads.
I am forwards, sprinting down an icy street
Walking with purpose and nonsense.
I love to love,
I love to be dangerous.
Me being me, 
Wishing to do danger
Like a gourmet meal on my tongue.
I can feel it coursing through my blue veins.
The blue I see I want to poke it.
Let the red come out,
Flowing, gently...tickling my arm. 
Watch out, because here my real self comes.

Lee Kesselman
If this world could stop from FACES
Text by: Rita Dove

If this world could stop
For a moment
And see me;
If I could step out in the street
and become one of them, 
One of anything,
I would sing
I would No,
Weep right here to simply
Be and be and be…

Lee Kesselman
i carry your heart from FACES
Text by: e.e. Cummings

i carry your heart with me
(i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it
(anywhere I go you go, my dear,
and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear no fate
(for you are my fate, my sweet)
i want no world
(for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you 

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;
which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart
(i carry it in my heart)

Amy Beth Kirsten
yes I said yes I will Yes
Text: James Joyce (Molly Bloom’s monologue from Ulysses)

I was a flower of the mountain yes
when I put the rose in my hair
like the Andalusian girls used
or shall I wear a red yes
and how he kissed me
under the Moorish wall
and I thought well as well him as another
then I asked him with my eyes to ask again
and then he asked me would I yes to say yes
my mountain flower
and first I put my arms around him yes
and drew him down to me
so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes
and his heart was going like mad
and I said yes

david lang 
i want to live from shelter
Text by: david lang

I want to live where you live
 

Kieren Macmillan
The Country Wife
Text by: Dana Gioia

She makes her way through the dark trees
Down to the lake to be alone.
Following their voices on the breeze,
She makes her way. Through the dark trees
The distant stars are all she sees.
They cannot light the way she's gone.
She makes her way through the dark trees
Down to the lake to be alone.

The night reflected on the lake,
The fire of stars changed into water.
She cannot see the winds that break
The night reflected on the lake
But knows they motion for her sake.
These are the choices they have brought her:
The night reflected on the lake,
The fire of stars changed into water.

Jeffrey Nytch
Covenant

(wordless)