Patricia Burgess
Composer, Improviser, Storyteller
—
Prayer Flags
LibrettoAmelia’s Flight - Scene 5
A Quickening of the Perception
Suriname to Forteleza (1,318 miles)
As Amelia cuts straight across dense virgin jungle she reflects on the impact of slavery and yet how she devours these exotic people and surroundings. Her perception awakens.
AMELIA
Rain clouds hang high above Caripito
Dodging squalls and flying low
We cut straight across dense virgin jungle
So thick solid treetops for miles
Broken by a silver streak,
The name of the river, Surinam,
Once applied to this whole country.
A vicious, wicked spot of slavery
That flourished along
The wild coast of South America
I devoured my exotic surroundings
The beauty of both the men and the women
Through its sights and sounds
Through my eyes and ears
Through every one of my five sense organs
A quickening of the perception
Is a step on the path to power
The adjacent jungle creeps down
To the very edge of town
Inhabited by Bush Africans
Descendants of escaped slaves
Glimpsed in the market place
Bartering soft-shell turtle eggs,
String beans eighteen inches long,
Horned cucumbers, breadfruit and sapodillas
Thrilled at being my own woman
I sped along at the head of the party
Sea grows and expands, unlocks the continents as Amelia follows the waterways.She has barely started the journey or had a chance to look at the world but must push through to the next landing. She must stay focused on a quick crossing of the equator and finds she is never able to be in the present moment.
AMELIA
Pushing through hurrying
To get to some other place
Pushing through hurrying
To get to some other place
Roll out of bed at a quarter of four,
Hoping to take-off at dawn
Pushing through
Pushing through
Get to some other place
Pushing through
Pushing through
Get to some other place
Construction work shortens
The take-off distance,
Making the fuel load a bit difficult
Pushing through
Pushing through
Get to some other place
Electra does not lift her wheels ‘til seven,
The sun well above the horizon
I have never seen a jungle
Geography requiring the best equipment
Do you prefer drowning to incineration?
Electra can glide gently down
Without the use of her engine
But she must have a smooth
open space for alighting.
Instrumental based on the song Prayer Flags -
creating the feel of prayers whispered by the wind
Prayer flags,
the wind whispers and sings them.
Old ragged, neglected players.
Prayers for things long since gone.
Brand new prayers full of trepidation,
for things that may yet to be put right.
Those hands.
The wind plays
indifferently upon them all.
The rest of the woman - forgotten.
It blows towards the huge horizon.
Absent, left out in the dark.
It is always the same tune,
A beautiful one full of half tones.
The wind now blows it near,
Now blows it away
And makes it almost in audible
Now brings it near again
giving a physical sense of the infinite.
Sacred phrases painted on wood block.
Whistling utters fill the air with good.
Fill the whole countryside
with more than just a sound.
Shouted into the wind.
Entrusted to the wind.
Dissolved into the wind.
Emotional overtones,
Subterranean voices,
The universe collapsing
among the craziest dissonance
But those hands of hers.
lived a life of their own
in the center of that
immense deserted plain.