Marjan Van Rompay - saxophone
Wout Gooris - piano
Thomas Decock - guitar
Janos Bruneel - double bass
Toon Van Dionant - drums

Poem by Kathryn Sparks from her "Lullabies and Nocturnes" poem cycle, inspired by Chopin's F Minor Nocturne.

Poem:

Sunset begins as dawn is barely ending, 
The day a secret known to but a few 
Who see such light without yet apprehending That their mortality is old while new, 

That death will follow birth in shorter seasons 
Than anyone admits or likes to know, 
Yet even such tight brevity has reasons 
For relishing the afternoon’s brief glow. 

Say this, if you would savor for its beauty 
A life as short as sorrows make it seem: 
That recognizing light remains a duty, 
And relishing the colors of its gleam 

A pleasure that entrances more compactly, 
Succinctly, for the smallness of the day, 
And teaches us to see such joys exactly 
Within their span, before they fly away. 

The moon, appearing ere the sun has faltered, 
The sun chasing her tail toward the moon, 
And all the stars that follow them, are altered 
In sight because I know they vanish soon,

 And I with them, but dream that time will lengthen 
Enough to let me see another day, 
Wiser for seeing afternoons that strengthen 
And nourish me by coloring the way. 

Sunset begins as I was barely crying, 
Newborn, and night appears and quickly wins, 
Yet even as I feel I’m fainting, dying, 
I know life’s beauties when sunset begins.

29

marjanvanrompay

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