Nothing But Mud

With unyielding imagery William Orpen, by vocation a painter not a poet, portrays a muddy morass in  "The Church, Zillebeke, October 1918.” Mud clings and hinders, mires and confuses. Here “mud” is both substance and metaphor, and in this poem, mud is “Everywhere— / Nothing but mud." This choral setting shifts between thick dissonant textures and a recurring solemn and hymn-like chord progression that memorializes both the church in ruins and the lives lost there. Szymko was drawn to Orpen’s clever yet irregular rhyme scheme, but mostly to his clear, unsentimental viewpoint.  Commissioned by New Dublin Voices for their 2019 "In Time Of War" concert.