Sleep is a short work for solo flute, which grew out of some of the material used in Phoenix. I am grateful to Henry Greenfield for drawing to my attention the poem which inspired it:
Sleep wrapped you in green leaves like a tree
you breathed like a tree in the quiet light
in the limpid spring I looked at your face:
eyelids closed, eyelashes brushing the water.
In the soft grass my fingers found your fingers
I held your pulse a moment
and elsewhere felt your heart's pain.
from Mythistorema (George Seferis)
Richard Causton
