Kevin Young - Blog | National Endowment for the Arts

"Ash Wednesday"

Once I thought everything
has a soul

Then I learnt only
the fool fears the tree--

It is empty--

So too the wind
that sends it which

way & that--
Now I know God

is such a wind
from which we
are rent--

The heavens take
the tree

from the tree--
leaf by leaf--

Being gone, taken,
is what means Heaven--

It is full--of wings--

A music of what
is missing

since nothing
but men have souls

tho, it appears,
not many.

In this excerpt from the podcast, we hear a passage from Cinque’s libretto. Here is Kevin Young reading “Ash Wednesday” from Ardency. [:40]

Kevin Young - Blog