'Walking To Hospital' from Three O'Sullivan Settings for soprano and piano (2023/24)

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.
Walking To Hospital by Leanne O'Sullivan
How the autumn dawn burned through
the misty broods and settled down in fire;
how quickly the sun glittered my shadow,
how my shadow cried, a moment, with joy.
A light frost, a vision of light crackling
down the maples, down the tinder ash.
I was the good thief. I held my Love’s
sweet breath, his beautiful, intelligent gaze.
I closed my eyes and he woke inside me.
When I saw, he saw the inflamed world.
A bird sang deeply from the gutter eaves.
When I closed my eyes I was elsewhere.
I walked through the fire of his sleep.