A mentor once told me, “You don’t have to change the world, you just have to make your corner of it a better place.” For years I have tried to do this through my own music, but sometimes I struggle. Sometimes the words don’t fit or the music doesn’t motivate me. Sometimes I even question how much I want music in my life at all.
I wrote this as a reminder to value and find meaning in the little moments. Singing with friends, listening to stories, and cherishing memories… these are the times when we can all make our corners better places.
I added the final line “and my memory” to emphasize that, even as life moves forward and brings challenges, the cherished memories of the past remain with us, offering comfort, strength, and motivation in the present.
Premiered April 25, 2025 – Voertman Hall, University of North Texas
Tenor – Julian Yanas Piano – PJ Mooney
TEXT:
Love has gone and left me and the days are all alike;
Eat I must, and sleep I will, — and would that night were here!
But ah! — to lie awake and hear the slow hours strike!
Would that it were day again! — with twilight near!
Love has gone and left me and I don’t know what to do;
This or that or what you will is all the same to me;
But all the things that I begin I leave before I’m through, —
There’s little use in anything as far as I can see.
Love has gone and left me, — and the neighbors knock and borrow,
And life goes on forever like the gnawing of a mouse, —
And to-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow
There’s this little street and this little house.
And my memory.
– Edna St. Vincent Millay