« he opens » was written as a companion piece to Schumann’s Dichterliebe—an intentionally queer work on the same themes of love & loss, intertwined with images of nature in bloom. Adam Arnold, who commissioned this work, put me in touch with Matthew Stepanic, an Edmonton-based queer poet who enthusiastically gave me free reign over his poetry. Stepanic’s words are lush and beautiful, but speak unambiguously about past male lovers, replete with sexual metaphors and embracing the emotional complexity of these relationships. Although each poem used in this cycle was written about a different person, the five poems together weave a single narrative of love and loss. Whereas Schumann’s cycle ends in sadness and despair, this cycle ends in peace and understanding—at the wedding day of his former lover, reconciling the past with his future.