Philip White: wherelings whenlings

"wherelings whenlings," by E. E. Cummings
wherelings whenlings
(daughters of ifbut offspring of hopefear
sons of unless and children of almost)
never shall guess the dimension of
him whose
each
foot likes the
here of this earth
whose both
eyes
love
this now of the sky
-endlings of isn't
shall never
begin
to begin to
imagine how(only are shall be were
dawn dark rain snow rain
-bow &
a
moon
's whis-
per
in sunset
or thrushes toward dusk among whippoorwills or
tree field rock hollyhock forest brook chickadee
mountain. Mountain)
whycoloured worlds of because do
not stand against yes which is built by
forever & sunsmell
(sometimes a wonder
of wild roses
sometimes)
with north
over
the barn
---
"The poem prescribes being in the grounding presence of nature as an antidote to uncertainty and anxiety, feelings I’d wrestled with as our relationship matured. "O Distinct" is an unabashedly romantic poem; I set it as a wedding gift to ourselves. The faithfulness the speaker describes here is to "the noise of worms" (in a romantic poem, no less!), a carpe diem-like sentiment that Maia and I both adore. I like to think cummings may have shared Mozart's feelings about death as 'this best and truest friend of mankind.'" - Philip White
Philip White, composer
Clara Osowski, mezzo soprano
Maia Jasper White and Kevin Kumar, violins
Meredith Crawford, viola
Yoshika Masuda, cello
HyeJin Kim, piano
Recorded by Louis Ng at The Village Studios Los Angeles in June 2024.