COMMISSIONING NOTE

Night train to Anyang was commissioned by and written for Jenny Wollerman. With thanks to Nina Mingya Powles for permission to set her poem, "Night train to Anyang."

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Programme note

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Night train to Anyang

 

light changes as we cross into neon clouds

voices flicker through the moving dark

like dream murmurs moving through the body

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red and silver 汉字 glow from building tops

floating words I can’t read rising into bluest air

they say there are mountains here but I can’t see them

there are only dream mountains high above the cloudline

I come from a place full of mountains and volcanoes

I often say when people ask about home

when I shut my eyes I see a ring of flames

and volcanoes erupting somewhere far away

when I open my eyes snow is falling like ash

 

 

 

Nina Mingya Powles, Magnolia 木蘭 (Seraph Press, 2020)