2003
Query
Composed by 
Paul Salerni
Paul Salerni Text by 
John Updike
John Updike Flora Song Collection
"Query" is the first song of Paul Salerni's Flora, which sets five poems of John Updike.
Text
Query
by John Updike
Pear tree, why blossom?
Why push this hard glitter
of life from your corpse?
Headless and hollow,
each major limb broken
by old storm or snowfall,
you startle the spring.
Doesn’t it hurt?
Your petals say not,
froth from your shell
like laughter, like breath.
But (your branchlets spew up
in an agony’s
spoutings) it must.
–John Updike: Collected Poems 1953-1993, pp. 127-128
Audio
“Query” (from “Flora”)
Debra Field (soprano)1:26