John Secunde

Ciera Cope asked me if I’d be interested in participating in Sparks and Wiry Cries’ songSLAM. Indeed I was! Thinking about the performance, which would be taking place at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, I thought that H.D.’s poem Cities, would make an excellent text; a poem about how cities are made of the memories and experiences of the people living there, and what that means for creative people. The epilogue, which I set, sums these themes up very succinctly.
The City is People is dedicated to my dear friend Ciera Cope.

The city is peopled
with spirits, not ghosts, O my love:

Though they crowded between
and usurped the kiss of my mouth
their breath was your gift,
their beauty, your life.