Eleanor Perry-Smith - "Elegy for He"

Howdy, this is Eleanor Perry-Smith, and my piece is titled Elegy for He. This is a poem I wrote after asking my daughter's favorite preschool teacher what her Summer plans were, and she said that her Summer before was so awful that she just wanted to go listen to a river. And I didn't want to put her on the spot and ask her "why" in front of everyone, so I went home and looked up her name and found out that just a few months before starting the job teaching my daughter, she had lost her long-time boyfriend to a rare blood disease really swiftly. And then she had to start work in the pandemic, teaching a horde of preschoolers, and she did it with grace and kindness and patience and skill, and I was overwhelmed when I learned that--I don't know why. I haven't spent more than a handful of hours with her. I didn't know her boyfriend, but I was just completely awash with emotion. And that's when the poem came. It is indeed an elegy, and is inspired of course by those I have lost, but this is specifically for her. 

I wanted the piece to have some motion and movement to it, of course like a river, and so the letters rise and fall. I thought that cursive would be appropriate because it also has that motion in it. I used ink--first pencil then ink--and then I dug deep into my music theory (I haven't studied since I was a little kid) but I wanted to make sure the musical notes I used in the piece were correct to the best of my ability. So I added a little bit of musical notes for certain pieces here and there, and then I added live moss on the side. I really enjoy using living plants in anything that I make and anytime I have a gathering. It also makes me think of the places where people are laid to rest and how the earth envelops them in greenery and warmth sort of softens the edges. That's why I included that and it was a pleasure to make this piece, and I'm excited that I also got to recite it because it's my favorite thing. So hopefully you'll get to hear the recording of it along with looking at the piece. Thanks for listening.