Nicola LeFanu

Penny for A Song

All the texts are miniatures; some are haiku, a Japanese Zen poetic form, and they all have in common a number of Haiku characteristics, such as vivid imagery, seasonal or natural, and allusive brevity. The poems are small, but they have a resonance extending far beyond themselves. Zen artists love to play with space: through a few brush strokes they conjure up a world of detail; they suggest infinitely expanding space through the implications of a few lines on a nearly empty background. This has been my approach in the music of A Penny for a Song. The songs are fleeting, momentary; they are echoes of a world that is always there if we stop to listen for it.