October Songs is a sequel (written 18 years and 11 months later) to my 2002 set entitled November Songs. For October Songs, I chose two poems by Christina Georgina Rossetti to surround “Unity” by Violet Jacob. Rosetti’s “A Birthday” bubbles over with personal exuberance, while Jacob’s poem takes a cosmic perspective — set in a soundscape of floating through space and feeling the impact of galaxies exploding light years away. “Sister Maude” returns to a vernacular music style for a “chanson noire” ballad of murder and betrayal.