Love Song

for Eleanor and Freya

The warmth of your fidgety body
Nestled against my spine

The softness of your fairy kisses
On my cheek

The sweet nutty smell of your hair

The shape and smallness of your hands in mine

These things I carry with me

Like the strange collection of shells and stones
Leaves and cicada skins
That find their way to the bottom of my bag

Unseen
Ready to surface and take me by surprise

Like the great waves of my love for you

Thank you Miriam

I sat at the piano today and played - something of a rare event over the last 10 years.  Our neighbour Graeme had given me a pile of his old music before he died last year and I have been saving it for such a day.  Among this dusty pile were quite a few pieces by dearly loved Australian composer Miriam Hyde.  It was the 100th anniversary of her birth last month and I had read a lovely blog post about her by music writer Rosalind Appleby so Miriam had recently been in my thoughts.  In the dusty pile of music I found a lovely little work called "Lullaby for Christine" with the dedication 'To my Baby Daughter'.  As I played through the piece I couldn't help but reflect on the struggle it would have been for Miriam Hyde to compose anything at all when caring for a baby.  I know I certainly struggled to compose anything very much for the first couple of years of our daughter's lives.  What a focussed, determined, tenacious and hugely talented woman she was.  Generations of Australian pianists (including me) grew up playing her pieces and I just took them for granted, not being aware of the circumstances in which they were written.  My two babies are now at school (Hoorah) and I can see my creative world opening up again - which is tremendously exciting.  All the more reason to appreciate and be inspired by the compositional efforts of all the composing mothers out there, past, present and future.  

Something in The Age

Photo by Wayne Taylor

Thanks to Kathy Evans for the lovely piece in The Age today - a follow up to the premiere performances of EPIC by the Australian Chamber Choir.