5/4/20 I don’t know which bird will sing first tomorrow morning from the pear tree but I know the open-throated song of tiny Wren and Robin’s trill I don’t know how many clouds it takes to raise a storm, but I can smell the soft animal of rain before the drops fall I don’t know […]
This is the Spring
16/04/20 This is the spring when YoYo Ma played Dvorjak to a cartoon of cows from his kitchen This is the spring when the Kanneh-Mason family live-streamed Beethoven’s 3rd piano concerto from their living room This is the spring of Folk on Foot’s front room festival and online gigs with awful sound and National theatre […]
Coronavirus Cyclist Rage
Coronavirus cyclist rage 21/04/20 I have thought of carrying a broomstick, on my morning ride, stretched out from the handlebars, to sweep you away – maybe one on each side. This morning again I duck and dive, glaring at your unbending glide past, I bump onto the rough grass and as you pass anger burns […]
P’s funeral
15/04/20 No big room No hugs No journeys by rail, air and sea No sharing of cake and tea No photos round the room. But this afternoon we zoomed into the crack between life and death and together we rested in your love reflected back to you wherever you are – in the rocks you […]
Our Baker’s Hands
12/04/20 We are finding our bakers’ hands, Letting the yeast rise again in these troubled lands. Flour, egg, butter and milk, Make a cake, make a loaf, Knead the dough now knead Carroway, cumin, cinnamon Clove, coriander, cardamom, Olive upon olive. Whizz up a lemon drizzle, a pie, a fool, a tart, art now in […]
No we cannot swim together
29/3/20 No, we cannot sing together – we cannot feel that hum of vibration dancing through our cells, making us well, together. But we are held together, we meet and greet and grow together, and with the eyes we know and the smiles we share, we move together. And when we sing (all muted up) […]
New Friends
3/5/20 We don’t get dressed up any more for there is nowhere to go that needs lipstick and silk scarves and a lick in the step Wardrobes rustle with forgotten frocks, skirts and shirts itching for outings – a chamber concert, a concerto, a West End play come North, a dinner, a wedding What will […]
May We Too Rise
3/5/20 The epidemic always passes, And this too shall pass And we will shout from door to door And hug with arms longer than before, Like bears that lift you off the floor, And we will sing and we will roar, Until our throats are gladly sore, Still laughing for more And as we honour […]
Lion’s Mane
Oceana, photo by Juan Cuetos displayed on Portobello Prom as part of Edinburgh Science Festival 23/03/20 Lion of the sea Prowling the deep with brainless grace Metres of mauve and orange ribbons throb and twist – What a dance! In this unlit space You make light, Lion of the dark night
I come back to the woods
26/04/20 I come back to the woods in these lockdown days to lose myself in beak and feather, bud and blossom. Here the birds happily sing together in the sun and on a day when I don’t know when we can sing together again, I lose myself in the song of the woods. Songs of […]