'Leaving Early' from Three O'Sullivan Settings for soprano and piano (2023/34)

Three O'Sullivan Settings with commissioned by New Music On The Bayou and premiered by Claire Vangelisti (sop.) and Rick Seiler (piano) at the Emy-Lou Biedenharn Recital Hall, Louisiana, USA.
Leanne O'Sullivan's Three Poems For My Husband is a beautiful and touching triptych, written when her husband was critically unwell in hospital. The poems were immediately appealing to me due to their imagery and intimacy, but also because of my interest in exploring healthcare experiences in music.
Leaving Early by Leanne O'Sullivan
My Love, tonight Fionnuala is your nurse.
You’ll hear her voice sing-song around the ward
lifting a wing at the shore of your darkness.
I heard that, in another life, she too journeyed
through a storm, a kind of curse, with the ocean
rising darkly around her, fierce with cold,
and no resting place, only the frozen
rocks that tore her feet, the light on her shoulders.
And no cure there but to wait it out.
If, while I’m gone, your fever comes down-
if the small, salt-laden shapes of her song
appear as a first glimmer of earth-light,
follow the sweet, hopeful voice of that landing.
She will keep you safe beneath her wing