When I was asked to write a song cycle by the Chicago-based soprano Alicia Berneche on the topic of "Women Poets Who Committed Suicide," I was a little taken aback. However, when she explained that she was doing a recital on this subject, inspired by an article she had read about the way in which suicidal poets have used language differently from non-suicidal ones, I became interested. At her suggestion, I looked at a few different poets and immediately feel in love with the manic, crazy and utterly brilliant poetry of Anne Sexton. Sexton suffered several breakdowns and attempted suicide several times before finally succeeding in 1974, at the age of forty-six. She went in and out of mental institutions, yet was still able to maintain a family and create a sizable body of work.

Much of Sexton's poetry is 'confessional' in that she puts the unadorned details of her life on display for all to see. For example, Music Swims Back to Me, is about her experience in a mental institution: ",,,They lock me in this chair at eight a.m. and there are no signs to tell the way,..." In Sylvia's Death (which I did not set to music), sexton recounts time spent with Sylvia Plath:

...the death we said we both outgrew,
the one we wore on our skinny breasts,

the one we talked of so often each time
we downed three extra dry martinis in Boston,...

But there are happy moments as well, and she also became quite religious at one point in her life. I have selected poems primarily based on their appeal to me as well as their potential for taking on music, but also have tried to give a glimpse into this woman's life by showing a small cross-section of her work. In the cycle, there are crazy and tragic moments as well as happy and awestruck ones.