A poet since she was a child, NANCY KNOWLES has been reciting poetry in concert since her early twenties. Her poetry has recently been set to music in two major song cycles, Between Light and Dark the Spirit Dances (2005) six songs for mezzosoprano, baritone and classical guitar by Ed Mascari and Syzygy , diary of an artist (2006) fifteen songs for mezzosoprano and classical guitar by Frank Wallace. Her ensemble Duo LiveOak will tour a staged production of Syzygy as a sequel to Knowles' theatrical memoir The House of Fools, which combines her own poetry and masks with unaccompanied songs from many traditions. A book of poems and photography lives in Nancy's head and will appear when the time is ripe. In the meantime please enjoy her poems, images, and songs on Knowles' weblog, or listen to Duo LiveOak's new CD Woman of the Water, which includes three settings of Nancy's words.. 

"Knowles' exceptionally beautiful soprano carried the evening in song and declaimed poetry..." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Al Alba Venid (Come at Dawn) by Nancy Knowles

The Woods dark, decrepit.

The mountain undulates behind
rises up suffused
almost carried away upward;
warming, pulsing with delight,
almost without substance.

A mirage, almost alien in this gray waiting.
So old it has forgotten all the wars.
So smooth the rain just rolls.
The wind slips by easily, mute.

The dirt of the road
hard, flat curve
between thistle prongs
and milkweed fluffs.

Suddenly to the East
an ecstatic blinding
flashes through black pines
in full throated song,
stealing the show.

Inside, two old dogs
yawn and stretch.

11/22/03