Passings
My mother hung laundry on clotheslines
when death came.
Unknowing, I sank into honey-soaked peaches,
curling into wrinkled seed and skin.
When death came,
It strode silent and storied
and curled into wrinkled seed and skin.
A flower burst cautious from grey ground.
It strode silent and storied,
The passing of ages.
A flower had burst cautious from grey ground.
A bloated garden now licks life.
The passing of ages
stitches itself as roots, as veins.
A bloated garden licks life,
it becomes sheared in human grace.
Stitching myself as roots as veins,
I kiss sprouts and push for growth,
and though sheared in human grace,
peach trees bear clotheslines wrapped around their
middles.
Bernadette Lehel ‘26
This is a pantoum I wrote in class, which comprises a series of quatrains with the second and fourth line of every quatrain repeated as the first and third lines of the next. I think the parameters of a pantoum fits well with the theme of this piece as history often repeats itself, and I wanted to experiment with how the actual form of a poem can also build up a theme.
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: An Original Arrangement
Simon Nguyen ‘26
Every year, the Dreyfoos music department holds their annual Prism concert at the Kravis Center. For this year, I wanted to do something special for me and my piano quartet by arranging a piece for Prism. I chose the well known Christmas hymn ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ because of its lush melodies, and I wanted to turn them into a power fanfare the audience would enjoy.