Gray Eyes
I wrote Gray Eyes as a gift to my wife on our wedding day. Teasdale’s lovely poem sentimentally airs the passage of time in the relationship of two partners. The text seemed a perfect fit, as my wife and I first got to know each other in April and were married four years later under a willow tree in her parents’ front yard. The sea has always been deeply important to me, as I grew up on a small island in the Pacific Northwest. The imagery of “And my first look in your eyes / Was like my first look at the sea” connects the home I find in the ocean with the home I find in her eyes.
The recording featured on this page is from a performance by Renova New Music Ensemble at a CU Boulder SoundWorks concert.
For questions about purchasing and performing this piece, please contact Blake directly using the contact form.
Gray Eyes -- Sara Teasdale
It was April when you came
The first time to me,
And my first look in your eyes
Was like my first look at the sea.
We have been together
Four Aprils now
Watching for the green
On the swaying willow bough;
Yet whenever I turn
To your gray eyes over me,
It is as though I looked
For the first time at the sea.