‘Soaring, Soaring Higher And Higher’
This is a poem where you take flight into realms metaphysical — just sit back and enjoy the ride. It is the first poem from a book called: Soaring Higher.
“Soaring, Soaring Higher And Higher
Soaring, soaring higher and higher
From here I can see for mile upon mile
Far over the seas to the horizon
Come with me and stay a while…”
The music that precedes the narration is Edvard Grieg’s Morning Mood.
For a sample of the audio, click: Soaring, Soaring Higher And Higher (verse 1, audio)
‘The Sky, The Sky’
There is so much you can see in the sky; have a look and let your imagination run free! This poem is in a mono-rhythmic style with an element of comedy.
“The Sky, The Sky
The sky, the sky in all its many shades of blue
Spectacled scientists tell us it has to be this hue
Much praise, I think, to them is certainly due…”
The music that accompanies this poem is J. S. Bach’s Minuet in G.
And here is the first verse: The Sky, The Sky
(For more details go to the ‘Books’ page.)
‘GOD CREATES’
This is a poem with a secret life:
10 verses
4 lines per verse
2 words per line (except last line)
3 syllables per line (except the sixth verse were there are 2 syllables for each of the 4 lines)
I’m sure these figures mean something to someone!
“GOD CREATES
God creates
Heaven, sky
Beasts below
Feathered fly…”
The music is G. F. Handel’s majestic Sarabande: GOD CREATES
‘What Is There In All Creation…?’
This poem is about the sky, and is written in the ABBA rhyming form. It also has four verses. Much of its content came from research.
“What Is There In All Creation…?
What is there in all creation that can compare to the sky?
She, at times, can be quite calm as well as electrifying
Also sometimes conveys sadness and happiness — quite confusing
This is because she is pure and 3 times very high…”
Interesting facts about the music:
Before narration — J. S. Bach, Prelude 1 from the 48 Preludes and Fugues (C Major)
After narration — Charles Gounod, Ave Maria, based on the J. S. Bach, Prelude 1 (melody in F Major overlays the prelude in C Major).
Here is the first verse: What Is There In All Creation…?
‘I Have A Nikon Camera’
This is a poem based on my adventures in the world of photography. Although ‘Nikon’ appears in the title, other cameras are available. And, goes without saying, any similarities to my personality are purely coincidental!
“I Have A Nikon Camera
I have a Nikon camera
That captures photons new
The light sensitive sensor
Is sharp, accurate and true…“
The music is the Bourrée from Violin Partita No. 1 by J. S. Bach, played on the piano on this occasion.
For a flavour of what it is all about, click: I Have A Nikon Camera
‘Pennsylvania’
In 2017 I was staying in Ambleside, Cumbria. As the accommodation in the B & B was called the Pennsylvanian Suite, there was also reading information about this American State available. So, naturally one evening I wrote this poem.
“In 2017 I was sojourning in Ambleside. The American style B & B was named Compston House. I happened to be in the Pennsylvanian Suite which was well facilitated and included sufficient reading material — including information about Pennsylvania. From these facts and figures I extracted the following rhyming verse. (The second and third in the trilogy are ‘Wrynose Pass’ and ‘Cumbria’ respectfully.)
Pennsylvania
(The Keystone State)
With a population @ 12, 000,000
And total area over 46k square miles
Pennsylvania is really quite large
With many couples walking down the aisles…”
The first piece of music that came to mind has strong American overtones: Dvorák’s Theme from the ‘New World’.
And here is a sample: Pennsylvania
‘Wrynose Pass’
This poem is about a long, winding road journey with nothing but the cloak of night for company.
The scene:
The Lake District. It is sunset. I had just arrived at an isolated tarn miles and miles from civilisation. After leaving the car, I continue on foot. On the rocky, uneven path to capture the lake (about 1 km) my phone bleeps — it’s a welcome text message from _ _ _. Very odd. Is that a chill going down my back? There is something about the atmospherics here…! Anyway, after the photography I return to the car and set the SatNav. The night draws in…
“Wrynose Pass”
“I’m on my way back to my lodgings
Not long, I hope, ‘till I’m safely back
I set the SatNav and follow its commands
It’s getting darker and will soon be pitch black…”
The introductory music is a fantastical piece by Beethoven, aka the Moonlight Sonata.
Click here for the first verse: Wrynose Pass
‘Cumbria’
This poem is a whistle-stop tour of Cumbria in the North West of England. All the places mentioned in the verses were part of my itinerary. As The Lakes were Wordsworth’s country, I felt inspired to write. Two other poems were also written here: Pennsylvania and Wrynose Pass (see above).
“Cumbria”
“I’m writing from Lakeland’s Ambleside
This holiday is making me tired
Lots to see, lots to do
(Quite comfortable at Hotel Vale View)
Lots more to do, lots more to see
Kodak is making a fortune from me!…”
The music that is before the narration is: Farewell To Stromness by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
And here is a sample: Cumbria
(For more Information go to the ‘Books’ page.)
‘Gone Fishing’
This poem came into being as a result of a theme that was set by a poetry group in Croydon, Surrey. The theme was sport, and I hadn’t a clue what to write until I was engaged in a mindless activity at home. So, during unfruitful mind activity, fishing surfaced. As I wasn’t too familiar about fishing, I visited a local angling shop to find out more… and the rest is history!
“Gone Fishing”
“It’s 3:15 am and I’ve just packed my lunch and kit
The predictive seaweed looks clammy as I check it
The shipping forecast confirms, rain is on the way
And hovering around minus two for most of the day…”
Naturally, ‘The Trout’ by Schubert leads up to the narration.
For the fist verse, click: Gone Fishing
‘Saying, Swaying in the Breeze’
It was a windy May afternoon when I was walking down the garden path. I happened to notice, it seemed for the first time, an array of beautiful flowers in bloom. Maybe it was their swaying that caught my attention. Anyway, I stopped for a closer look and saw bumble-bees indiscriminately landing on them; one, then the other. To capture this nature in action, I made a video recording with my phone.
The following morning this scene, with words, was going round my head, and before breakfast the poem was complete.
The music I paired with the poem, Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata, echoes the back and forth movement of the flowers. For added imagination, one could imagine dancing ladies instead of flowers.
“Swaying, Swaying in the Breeze”
“Swaying, swaying in the breeze
Dancing, dancing beneath tall tree
Moving another way in slight air
So handsome, so pretty, so fair
Hues and shades, rare and fine
What invention, what design…”
Click here for: Swaying, Swaying in the Breeze
‘The Garden of Eden’
This rhyming poem is based on the Biblical events that took place in the Garden of Eden — and includes a reading of the future. When writing these verses, care was taken to adhere to the fidelity and the sequence of events as given in the Bible.
The music that goes with this poem is the Elizabethan Serenade by Ronald Binge. It is light and grandiose with such positive, live giving vigour.
“The Garden of Eden”
“God created the garden of Eden
A pure unspoiled paradise
An ordered beautiful landscape
That could grow and increase in size…”
For the first verse of this poem, click: The Garden of Eden
‘This is the Month’
Facts around the writing of this poem:
In the Spring of 1990 I set about writing a poem about Easter with the intention of having it published in a journal that would be available at that time. When the poem was eventually finished, it was without ‘Eastertide’ in the title. Although I had virtually no church attendance since childhood, I found myself including elements of the Easter story.
Then, before summer was in full swing, some Christians started to befriend me. They were from a local church canvassing the area. I was eventually invited to a Sunday morning meeting and someone named Colin Spurdle was due to pick me up. However, for a good reason he forgot and said he would come the following week. That Sunday came and I was so eager to go that I decided to go by myself. I have now been attending the same church for thirty years, plus.
During my years at this church, the poem was redrafted, extended and finally finished.
“This Is The Month — Eastertide”
“This is the month
When they say that it rains and pours
Down come the showers
From heaven’s open doors…”
I hope you enjoy this extract: “This Is The Month — Eastertide”
‘My Peace’
Quotes about ‘peace’ from the worldwide-web:
“People have been trying by all means to gain peace. Therefore history of human beings, in one aspect, is the history of searching for peace. Peace has been talked, thought, taught and studied in many ways and many aspects”
“It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart”
“tranquility with harmony”
“love”
“authenticity”
“intuition”
“freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions”
“the state of peace within man himself that means there is no conflict inside one‘s mind’
Below is the first verse of my poem about peace followed by the full YouTube musical verson.
“My Peace”
“🍊 Before my eyes open in the morning
At the instance of emerging from sleep
Even before I am aware of anything external
I experience something so powerful and so deep…”
The music in the audiobook version of this poem, as here, is Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie No. 1.
Click here for the full poem: My Peace
‘The Ultimate Renewed Environment’
What are your thoughts and opinions on the world around us? Are you happy or content with life, the universe and everything? What would you change? Considering the history of everything around us, would you change anything and everything? Do you long for everything to be perfect? And, do you want this to never end?
In my poem, The Ultimate Renewed Environment, I include an interpretation of the universal state beyond the end of the world.
“The Ultimate Renewed Environment”
“At the end of time
When the new order has begun
And everything as we know it
Has been changed in the twinkling of an eye…”
The music in this video is Beethoven’s 5th symphony. Although the piece is known world-over for its ‘fate knocking at the door’ opening, the second movement is comparatively serene, with elements of a longing tranquility. As if to say that there is a beautiful existence beyond cosmic judgement that will be well — very well, indeed!
For the complete musical version of this poem, click: The Ultimate Renewed Environment
‘A Natural Virtuoso!’
I went to the National Poetry Library in London earlier this year. I was on a mission: to find out which magazines published similar poetry to mine. For the next two hours I looked at everything that was available. All, bar one, had absolutely no poems about music — not even remotely! In my first poetry book ‘Soaring Higher’ (see ‘books’ page) there are six full length poems with such tasty flavours!
This poem is about a musician — and no ordinary musician at that — but a Virtuoso. “But what is a Virtuoso?” I hear you cry. According to Grove Music Online:
“Virtuoso ( It., from Lat. virtus : ‘excellence’, ‘worth’ ) A person of notable accomplishment; a musician of extraordinary technical skill. In its original Italian usage (particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries) ‘virtuoso’ was a term of honour reserved for a person distinguished in any intellectual or artistic field: a poet, architect, scholar etc. A virtuoso in music might be a skilful performer, but more importantly he was a composer, a theorist or at least a famous maestro di cappella. In the late 17th and 18th centuries a great number of Italian”
“A Natural Virtuoso!”
“Just a few words I’ve penned over tea
That I hope will warm your heart and bless
Who in all the wide-world could it be?
An appreciative music lover no less…”
A piece of music that requires virtuosic technique is J. S. Bach’s famous showstopper: Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Fragments of the Toccata are included in a video of myself performing the poem.
For the full poem, click here: A Natural Virtuoso!
This video is one of eighteen poems available in my VideoBook. Click here for more details: Soaring Higher (videobook)
New Book?
The ‘Lightbulb’ Moment…
Approximately eighteen months ago I was checking my emails whilst listening to the radio. One email was from the Globe Theatre in London and I happened to be looking through their linked, online catalogue. The radio station was BBC’s Radio 3 and a musician was talking about their preferred recording of a Wagner composition.
At that time, I had been a Wagner enthusiast for a few years – even seeing part of one of his compositions at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall… A thought occurred to me…: “What would it be like to hear the whole piece performed by German musicians and singers…?”
Anyway, back to the ‘lightbulb’ moment. As I was looking through said catalogue and deciding how to use my discount code, floating over the airwaves came Wagner’s ‘Ring Cycle’. And, almost simultaneously (I think), my eyes landed on the theatre’s ‘Shakespeare Dictionary’. 💡 How about combining the two? This could be a world first: The Ring Cycle written in Shakespearean language!
Anachronisms
On New Year’s Day, 1st January 2022, I officially started the research. I was excited and looking forward to penning the ‘Shakespearean Ring’. I had a couple of German to English translations — good… Simply use the Shakespearean lexicon, etcetera, instead of contemporary English — and everyone will understand… But will they…? Where’s my red marker!
Stabreim versus Couplet
Wagner’s ‘Ring’ (or ‘The Ring of the Nibelung’ to give you its full title) is a seventeen hour opera. He, himself, sourced various versions of the epic poem, writing and re-writing the text in stabreim. He also composed the music.
Definition of Stabreim: (Ger.). A versification style based on alliteration, common in German and other north European poetry of the early Middle Ages. It was adopted by Wagner when writing his own librettos …
from: Stabreim in The Oxford Companion to Music (online)
This project will be a re-working into another poetic style, the couplet, and is based on research I conducted.
Definition of Couplet: two successive lines of verse forming a unit marked usually by rhythmic correspondence, rhyme, etc…
from: Merriam-Webster (online)
The first verse from part one penned recently:
The Ring of the Nibelung
📕 The Rhinegold
📗 The Valkyrie
📘 Siegfried
📙 Twilight of the Gods
Part 1: The Rhinegold From left to right by nature’s design Flows continuously the ready River Rhine Lighter turquoise evenly spread Becoming darker towards the bed Near the floor the water dissipates Leaving an increasingly breathable state This vaporific man-sized space Moves continuously and at apace Across the floor of the riverbed Where no man can naturally tread Are rough rocks and undercurrent tides And vertical caverns unimaginably wild…
‘The Sky, The Sky’
When you look at the sky, what thoughts go through your mind and what feelings do you experience? Could you put words to any of this, or not really? In many respects the sky is nebulous, which implies that it can be described in a multiple of different ways.
And the imagination…
Maybe try this as an exercise:
- Go to the sky
- Close your eyes momentarily
- Open them and write down the first thing that comes to mind
Many years ago on my walks around a large office complex, I felt drawn to look out the windows at the sky. I cannot necessarily put it into words, but it did me good; her other worldliness, her perceivable yet unperceivable character, her secrets and mysteries, her colour spectrum…
In my first poem about the sky, I use a mono-rhythmic tercet scheme:
‘The Sky, The Sky
The sky, the sky in all its many shades of blue
Spectacled scientists tell us it has to be this hue
Much praise, I think, to them is certainly due…’
(verse 1)
Here is the first verse from my videobook: The Sky, The Sky
The music in the video is J. S. Bach’s Minuet in G.
‘What Is There In All Creation…?’
One evening when it was warm I took a walk to the shops. It was still daylight and the atmospheric conditions were good. The lighting was that which accompanies the setting of the sun. However, it wasn’t the setting sun that caught my senses, glorious as it may have been, but the quality of the ambient light. It was as if I was looking through a veil.
As I walked home, I found myself thinking about the first line to a Shakespeare sonnet: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (sonnet 18). Much of my preoccupation at the time concerned the sky – particularly writing about it. Within 24 to 48 hours I had drafted three poems about the sky. The feel of the first line of sonnet 18 lead me to write my first line: What is there in all creation…?
The ‘What Is There In All Creation…?’ poem is written in four verses, each verse with an ABBA rhyming form. That is: line 1 rhymes with line 4 and line 2 rhymes with line 3. At the time of composing the poem, I had no knowledge of any other poem written in this style. This knowledge came later.
‘What Is There In All Creation…?
What is there in all creation that can compare to the sky?
She, at times, can be quite calm as well as electrifying
Also, sometimes, conveys sadness and happiness — quite confusing
This is because she is pure and 3 times very high…’
(verse 1)
In my videobook, the music that accompanies this poem is J. S. Bach’s Prelude No. 1 from his Well-Tempered Clavier, Book One.
Here is a video clip from the poem: What Is There In All Creation…? (verse 1)
For those willing to go further, the music that concludes the video is the Ave Maria by Gounod which is based on the Prelude.
‘I Have A Nikon Camera’
‘I Have A Nikon Camera’ is an art poem about a camera which also tells you a lot about me!
The first verse reads:
“I Have A Nikon Camera
I have a Nikon camera
That captures photons new
The light sensitive sensor
Is sharp, accurate and true…“
Let’s wind the clock back several years…
There was a time in my life that lasted decades when I was passionate about all things photography. I studied it acquiring many qualifications, amassed stacks of magazines, joined a camera club and three photography organisations, and purchased a good quality Digital Single Lens Reflex camera.
When not in use, I would store the camera in the airing cupboard with other items. Just above the cupboard is the cold water tank. One day this water tank developed a leak that saturated everything in the airing cupboard – including my Nikon camera.
Soon after this I found myself writing poetry. Up until then my poetry writing had only been now and again, on the odd occasion. But now, more frequent poetry started emanating from me; I was falling in love with the process of writing poetry! At the time, thoughts like “this is going somewhere” were floating around my mind.
As high level photography had been evident in my life for a long time, writing poetry about it came quite naturally. There was a transfer from one type of creativity to another. Further still, an easy leap to producing videos of my poems – including this one.
The video version of this poem is an arthouse production, with music by J. S. Bach recorded on my acoustic piano. All visuals and audios have been artistically altered during the editing stage.
Here is the first verse from my videobook: I Have A Nikon Camera
‘Wrynose Pass’
Wrynose Pass is a mountain road in an English National Park called The Lake District. It has been described as Britain’s most difficult road.
During a photography holiday in this part of England I was coming to the end of a particular day. I had been driving far and wide to many locations with my camera, rural and otherwise.
The time was approaching sunset when I reached Devoke Water, the last location before returning to the B & B. Although I had been to this lake before, this second visit was a trifle peculiar… What was not different was the voices of the angels and the view of the lake itself, made extra special by the setting sun with all its colours.
After the photography I returned to the car and started to make my way back but, unlike the previous occasion some years earlier, the journey was marked by a thick, nocturnal atmosphere – and I had no idea what lay ahead.
The location I chose to film this poem was an almost forgotten road somewhere that reminded me of Wrynose Pass… but where’s the car!
The first verse:
“Wrynose Pass
I’m on my way back to my lodgings
Not long, I hope, ‘till I’m safely back
I set the SatNav and follow its commands
It’s getting darker and will soon be pitch black…”
The music I chose for the video is titled: Sonata quasi una fantasia (translates to: Sonata in the style of a Fantasy). Although the sonata is also known as the Moonlight Sonata, I wanted to bring out the drama and sense of fantasy when I recorded it on my piano. The recording of the music also went through a mysterious and eventful journey. The morning after I had made the final edit, I played it back on my HiFi. Immediately after this I turned the radio on and exactly the same movement from the same piece was being played.
Here is the first verse from my videobook: Wrynose Pass
‘Gone Fishing’
“The assignment, if you choose to accept, is to write a poem about fishing.” Well, that wasn’t quite the directive from Her Majesty’s Secret Service but by a local poetry collective some years ago. To be more precise, a person from the group Poetry Hour, which meets bi-monthly at Croydon Central Library, selected the topic of ‘sport’ that we could write about for the next meeting.
Now, I’m not really a sporty sort of person but very keen on most other aspects of health and fitness. I hadn’t a clue what to write about for a week or so until I was engrossed in another intensive sport akin to skydiving – the sport of ironing! There I was pressing the creases and my mind caught… a fish! I had never, ever, been fishing and so I went to the local angling store to conduct some research.
While I was there, I asked the sales assistant about the sport and bought some fishing line, a fly, a hook and an angling magazine – these would be visual aids that I would use during my reading. At least that was my intension.
The poem may, or may not, have been written with a tongue in my cheek.
“Gone Fishing
It’s 3:15 am and I’ve just packed my lunch and kit
The predictive seaweed looks clammy as I check it
The shipping forecast confirms, rain is on the way
And hovering around minus two for most of the day…”
first verse
For the video productions of the poem there was only one choice of music that sprung to mind: The Trout by Franz Schubert. In my recording, I have brought out the jolly experience of fishing! Furthermore, there is a surprise at the end of the full length videobook version of the poem.
To wet, whoops, whet your appetite here is the first verse from the videobook: Gone Fishing
‘Swaying, Swaying In The Breeze’
It was around the time of the Chelsea Flower Show one year and I was walking along the path in my front garden. Although it was windy, the blue sky just held its own on that sunny afternoon in May. My eyes noticed something moving in the breeze – it was the flowers. It was, as if, I saw the flowers in that light for the first time – dancing.
How many decades had I lived here…? How many flowers had I seen grow, flourish and change with the seasons in my garden…? And how many days, weeks and months of beautiful summer weather had I witnessed…? Not forgetting the aggregate of creatures over a couple of decades, or so, that may have happened upon them…?
There was a bee or two doing what they do best in such natural environments, just buzzing about from flower to flower. These were no ordinary bees – they were my bees!
I was compelled; out came my phone. For the next however-long, I filmed them: the bees… the flowers… and the breeze…
Early the next morning when my eyes had barely opened, I was thinking about this scene. My mind was fixated; I could not stop thinking about it all; I was obsessed; over and over and over: the bees… the flowers… and the breeze… Compulsion grabbed me again and I stole my pen. For a good, long while I toiled: trying this here, something else there, moving the other somewhere else… And then, two hours later, I struck gold – I wrote the last word. Phew! It wasn’t until I returned the pen that I could once more live a normal life. I was satisfied. I was quenched. I was full. And I was free from my malady – safe. The only thing I needed to do was have breakfast – and so I did. And continue with my day.
“Swaying, Swaying In The Breeze
Swaying, swaying in the breeze
Dancing, dancing beneath tall tree
Moving another way in slight air
So handsome, so pretty, so fair
Hues and shades, rare and fine
What invention, what design…”
– first verse
Just for a moment or two, let your imagination go and think of long ladies with long, wavy hair, wearing long dresses, during long, hazy summer days dancing in circles beneath… a tall tree…
Here is a video recording of myself performing the first verse: Swaying, Swaying In The Breeze
The Garden of Eden
God created the Garden of Eden
A pure unspoiled paradise
An ordered beautiful landscape
That could grow and increase in size
God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden
And said, “Be fruitful and multiply
Fill the earth and subdue it
And govern all that creep, swim and fly”
In the Garden a love story began
Adam and Eve enjoying flesh-of-my-flesh
The two became an unashamed one
In the first marriage with a world to bless
Adam and Eve experienced the joy of God
His presence with them was unbroken
As strong as a three-stranded cord
That’s how it was in the Paradise Garden
In the Garden was the forbidden tree
That could cause catastrophic strife
In the midst of the Garden, though
Was another tree, the Tree of Life
“In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”
God plainly said to Adam and Eve
All they had to do was not eat from the forbidden tree
Believe God, Adam and Eve, just believe!
It was the cunning, slippery serpent
That tempted Eve to sin
Adam fell too and their eyes were opened
And the Cosmos became cursed as death entered in
God then drove them out of Eden
And placed a cherubim at the east
And a flaming sword that turned every way
Guarding the Tree of Life and its feast
However, this is not how it all ends
We will not return to the lost Eden
Redemption and Consummation is coming
There’s no plan for that Ancient Garden
In the future will be a Greater Garden
With the Tree of Life on both sides of the River
Its leaves are for the healing of the nations
And the juicy, sweet fruit we will savour
Yes, we will eat from the Tree of Life
Its branches regularly fully laden
Yielding a new crop every month
In the new and Everlasting Eden
This is the Month – Eastertide
This is the month
When they say that it rains and pours
Down come the showers
From heaven’s open doors
But in-between the cascades
There are beams of sunlight
Shining through clouds
Heavy laden and fluffy white
This is the month
When the daylight grows longer and longer
With the sun rising earlier
And setting later and later
There is also a change
In the quality of light visible in the atmosphere
This phenomenon only happens
Once in the northern hemisphere
This is the month
When spring is well and truly here
It’s time for leaping of the lamb
And the young deer
Buds are prising open
Seeds and bulbs germinate
O’ the splendour
Of nature’s natural nascency about this date
This is the month
That brings high tides to our shores
As the moon orbits closer
And waxes more and more
These signs are where
The Jewish people take their Passover
And from where Christians
Take the major holiday called Easter
There is nothing like Eastertide
Celebrating a fantastic event
It happened 2000 years ago
And I, in a sense, was present
The most spectacular display
Of God’s agape love
Crucifixion and Resurrection
The only plan from above
On a Friday God laid sin on His Son
The sin of men nailed to a cross
He crucified the sinless Lamb
And took away our dross
On a Sunday Christ is raised
And we are raised with Him
This same Resurrection Power
— The Spirit — is at work within
And now we can live righteously
The old has gone, the new has come
Spreading the Good News Gospel
Of what Jesus Christ has done
The Known Great Composer
A few years ago I was online scanning the concert listings at a world-class venue in London. On this particular occasion I was looking for small scale music-making. The Baroque era is a favourite of mine, and I chose a recorder and theorbo programme.
On the day of the concert I was early, and so decided to spend some time in a book shop. Afterwards, I went to the concert hall and started my packed lunch. Before I could finish it was time for the concert to begin.
During the concert sometimes the instruments played together, sometimes they played solo. For one recorder solo, the recordist played two recorders simultaneously! When the theorboist played solo pieces, one of them was introduced as a passacaglia – which, to my amusement, collected philistinic giggles. If only the pictures of musical aristocracy on the walls of the concert room had ears of flesh!
This poem, The Known Great Composer, is about the concert. Head and shoulders above, one composer and his music made my whole time in London memorable. Memorable for the right reason – music.
No prizes, but if you can guess the Great Composer I don’t mention, you are a winner! Clue: Imagine the accompanying music in this clip being played two octaves lower on a solo cello…
“The Known Great Composer”
“The window blinds close
The stage lights are adjusted
Two musicians walk on stage
And we welcome them warmly…”
On the way home, I happened to see someone I knew. We talked for a while, and I expressed that I would be writing a poem about the concert. By this time, my mind had already begun putting the poem together.
Furthermore, before arriving home, I visited a local art gallery and talked more about poetry to the exhibiting Artist, referencing the couple of books I bought earlier that day written by the Poet Laureate.
‘The Johann Sebastian Bach Limericks’
Music Maestro!
Four short poems about J. S. Bach’s music.
Limerick 1
An ecclesiastical cycle.
“J. S. Bach’s Church Cantata oeuvre
Is really quite pious and pure
The melodies are holy
And so are the harmonies
For 3 liturgical calendars, not 4”
So, what is a Cantata? A Cantata is a musical work composed for the voice. It is approximately twenty minutes long with smaller movements for solo voice, chorus and instrumental accompaniment — sometimes all three.
Church Cantatas, aka Sacred Cantatas, are intended to be performed during Christian liturgy.
What is the difference between an Opera and a Cantata? As a Cantata is a vocal work, mainly during the C17th and C18th, an Opera is a theatrical work combining drama, music, song and sometimes dance.
Limerick 2
The Composer’s sewing machine!
Limerick 3
A poem for Count Kaiserling.
Limerick 4
A contemporary instrument of the viola da gamba.
For full-length videos of my poems, see below:
18 poems from the paperback
Apple Books:
Elizabeth Windsor
Amen, we say, God bless you, ma’am
Reigning on the throne 70 a yarn
Serving steadfast and steady, and so calm
Our queen has made the record book
All eyes to her this day will look
Celebrate our world-class monarch
Head of the Commonwealth lands
Sovereign of the Garter, and
Supreme Governor of the Church of England
750 holiday cards issued every year
1,500 puddings to employees far and near
Philanthropic activity beyond compare
Her first corgi was called Susan by name
A lover of horses and the equine game
And owns unmarked mute swans on the Thames
Her Royal Highness and Majesty
Is also a lover of photography
And taking pictures of her family
To Scottish dancing she is partial
Hosting balls at Balmoral Castle
And Highland cuisine as traditional
Christmas message broadcast on the day
Telegram message on your 100th birthday
And media message honouring citizens – hooray!
Serving steadfast and steady, and so calm
Reigning on the throne 70 a yarn
Amen, we say, God bless you, ma’am!
Splashes of Ink 