CREATIVE: Emily Hall on her songs for Revolutions-Reactions
The two songs I’ve written set fragments from two different poems by Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941), my favourite Russian poet, who lived a mix of conformism and non-conformism and a life of immense hardship writing prolifically as she went.
The first “I am living simply” (1919)
I am happy living simply
like a clock, or a calendar
This resonated with me and felt like a universally aspirational sentiment. But there is humour in there too because sometimes it feels like we are regimenting ourselves into simplification almost against our will, sacrificing the beauty of chaos which ultimately is impossible to keep out…
The other fragment is from a poem called “The poem of the end” (1923). I just found it quite simply, sad.
we’ve reached the end of the ending
and there is nothing left to lose
we’ve reached the end of the ending
so I stroke and stroke your face