Doors
A sweeping embrace of heart-opening things: poems, mistakes, rain...
Music: Elizabeth Alexander
Words: Dawna Markova
An invitation to step through the painful, frightening and intense passages of life, remaining open to the new possibilities they can offer. This setting of Dawna Markova’s powerful poem wears its heart on its sleeve, moving from rhapsody to despair, rebirth, and love.
Originally composed in 2015, Doors was reimagined in 2026 for Jennifer Tibben and Bella Voce Reno, who premiered the song in May!
Details and Ordering Information
Threshold
Anything that needs you
or hurts you
or calls you to a bigger life
is a door.
A mistake is a door.
The ocean in which you almost drowned,
that is a door;
The rain opening a garden,
the kisses of children opening the heart of the world,
these are doors.
The poem of new life that comes every dawn,
the soaring of sun,
that is a door.
All that has died, leaving a hole in your life
is a door,
begging you to step through,
to feel yourself
opening,
to find yourself
beloved on this earth.
Dawna Markova
Copyright 2003 by Dawna Markova
Performers
Premiere of Reimagined Version (2026): Bella Voce Reno / Jennifer Tibben (Carson City and Reno, NV)
Premiere of Original Version (2015): Minnesota Girl’s Honor Choir / Kari Gilbertson (Mahtomedi, MN)
