1965
The Air is the Only
Composed by 
Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem Text by Howard Moss
Poems of Love and Rain Song Collection
"The Air is the Only" is the third and fifteenth song in Ned Rorem's song cycle Poems of Love and Rain for mezzo-soprano and piano.
Text
The Air is the Only
by Howard Moss
The air is the only
Lonely bearer
Of the one breath
Of Love’s wayfarer.
The sea’s too wet
To forgive.
Forget
Its salty ranges:
Change changes.
But sing flesh,
Sinew and bone,
And mostly blood,
The fine wood
In which we hive
The dead and alive,
The hollow vein
And love’s rain.
Sheet Music