Count Me the Stars

About

This short work for treble-voice choir and guitar sets a poem by Australian poet Kylie Johnson. Kylie is a visual artist as well as a published poet.

Her website www.paperboatpress.com says:

'During her study of Visual Arts and Film at QUT in Brisbane (1990-1993) Kylie met a group of artists and potters and became part of the group known as Amfora. Amfora held many group shows throughout its 12-year run, of which Kylie was a part of all. It was through these years that Kylie also published three books of her poetry: Distant Shoes (1992), forty-eight minus one (1997) and the ivory birds (2000), the poetry book launches also coincided with solo exhibitions of her painting and collage work. In 1996 Kylie set up her business paper boat press, in its early stages creating a boutique greeting card range featuring her own whimsical one or two line poems. This has now grown to include ceramic ornaments, ceramic jewelry, original illustrations and functional ceramic vessels. In recent years Kylie has joined forces with a group of Brisbane artists to form the Umbrella Collective. The six women work together towards group shows and sales of their work as well as creating a dialogue and support network for all aspects of their work and creative business.'

Count Me the Stars sets a text taken from her most recent poetry collection of the same name. The poem is untitled, so I used the first line as a title for my setting.