tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34163062698103352322024-03-10T00:48:28.364+01:00BlurtmetryAidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.comBlogger211125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-72067711883440670632024-01-01T16:05:00.003+01:002024-01-18T13:33:19.183+01:00Citizen science and citizen journalism<p>Believed,</p><p>the pensioner</p><p>enjoyed brief fame.</p><p>Someone had a video.</p><p>Doubt.</p><p><br /></p><p>Busy, </p><p>the traffic</p><p>kills many beasts.</p><p><a href="https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/could-citizen-science-save-wildlife-from-roadkill/" target="_blank">Count</a> those you see.</p><p>Understanding.</p><p><br /></p><p>Disillusioned,</p><p>a land </p><p>needs new stories.</p><p><a href="https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/celebrating-a-million-readers-east-anglia-bylines-remarkable-journey/" target="_blank">Citizen journalism</a> seeks them.</p><p>Maps.</p><p><br /></p><p>Risky.</p><p>The firm </p><p>pays its dividend.</p><p><a href="https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/sewage-citizen-science-and-the-river-deben/">Sewage taints its water.</a></p><p>Bacteria.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thriving,</p><p>the company</p><p>pays huge bonuses.</p><p>But <a href="https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/anglian-water-fined-for-huge-sewage-discharge-in-essex-river/" target="_blank">watch its sewers</a>. </p><p>Fines.</p><p><br /></p><p>Wild,</p><p>the starlings</p><p><a href="https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/norfolk-wildlife-trust-is-looking-for-volunteer-citizen-scientists/" target="_blank">decline in numbers</a>.</p><p>But they keep mimicking. </p><p>Life.</p><br /><br /><br /><br />The above things represent a form its inventors call <i>Elfchen</i>, from the German for 'eleven'. It's based on a pattern of words rather than of syllables, feet or rhymes. Eleven words, disposed as follows:<br /><br />1 Word: An adjective<br /><br />2 Words: A noun with an article<br /><br />3 Words: An action of the noun<br /><br />4 Words: Complement the action<br /><br />1 Word: A noun that closes the story<br /><br />This whole thing was the brainchild of the '<a href="https://www.ecsa.ngo/working-groups/storytelling-and-other-arts/">Storytelling and other arts</a>' working group of the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA). I heard of the project from my scientist wife <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/claresansom/">Clare</a>.<br /><br />The links in my <i>Elfchen</i> are to stories in <a href="https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/"><i>East Anglia bylines</i></a>, a citizen journalism outlet I've been <a href="https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/author/aidanbaker/" target="_blank">involved with</a> for a couple of years now. The linked stories are not mine, but I hope writing <i>Elfchen</i> about them gives me a vague sort of association with them.<br /><br />The <i>Elfchen</i> were included by ECSA in their collection <i>Citizen science through poetry</i>, <a href="https://www.ecsa.ngo/working-groups/storytelling-and-other-arts/" target="_blank">available</a> both as A3 poster and as a foldable booklet. The plan is to share printed copies at the ECSA 2024 conference in Vienna, 3-6 April 2024.<br /><br />Copied here with ECSA's blessing -- thanks. They ask that everyone use the hashtags <br /><br />#PoemsForCitSci and #citizenscience <br /><br />and tag<br /><br />@eucitsci, when promoting their work on social media. Done!Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-47544282149167415422023-11-26T16:40:00.007+01:002023-12-25T17:59:18.816+01:00The Amazon song<p> <span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: 700; white-space-collapse: preserve;">THE AMAZON SONG</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-804f92ce-7fff-6b06-5d59-2c5cbca3426a"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">(tune 'Besançon' </span><a href="https://bit.ly/3G2JjhT" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">https://bit.ly/3G2JjhT</span></a><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> )</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Amazon, pay your workers right, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">have things safe on every site,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">have the unions organising,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">jobs as jobs, with no disguising.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">People, today's Buy Nothing Day --</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">come and let's make Amazon pay.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Amazon, pay your tax in full,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">where you work, and pull no wool.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">End your games of profit-shifting</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">and tax havens' legal grifting.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">People, today's Buy Nothing Day --</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">come and let's make Amazon pay.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Amazon, cool the world that burns,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">take less from it as it turns,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">open Just Transition trial,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">fund no climate change denial.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">People, today's Buy Nothing Day --</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">come and let's make Amazon pay.</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Aidan Baker</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">CC BY 2.0</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Written in support of the Make Amazon Pay campaign </span><a href="https://makeamazonpay.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">https://makeamazonpay.com/</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">For Buy Nothing Day, see </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buy_Nothing_Day" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buy_Nothing_Day</span></a><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> . If singing on some other day of the year, end each stanza with</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">People, each day's a boycott day --</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">that's how we make Amazon pay.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">This was sung by a small group of us at two demos for Buy Nothing Day, 24 November 2023. The demos were small but successful -- one with placards and singing </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">in front of Amazon's Cambridge office, one on the city's pedestrianised Burleigh Street </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">with other groups marking Buy Nothing Day.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">While we were getting our act together for the Amazon one, we were </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">approached by the site custodian, who asked what our intentions were. </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">We told him we'd be staying outside and singing. "Any chance of a good </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">Christmas carol?" he asked. In fact the tune for the above words is from an </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">old French carol, but I don't know if he was there to hear it.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">Burleigh Street involved an extraordinary slow procession through the </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">Grafton Centre, led by members of the <a href="https://redrebelbrigade.com/">Red Rebel Brigade</a> (who dress in that colour for such </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">occasions). Their protests are silent and very dignified. I think </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">they'd have made some impact on me if I'd been a mere spectator, and I </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">hope shoppers felt the same.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">We didn't attempt to sing during their part of the proceedings, but we </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">gave the Amazon song a couple of times before and after, while we were </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; white-space-collapse: collapse;">out in the sun.</span></span></p><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></span>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-70344351312466985522023-11-01T17:13:00.000+01:002023-11-01T17:13:17.534+01:00An imagined community<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 700; white-space-collapse: preserve;">AN IMAGINED COMMUNITY</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-1225e5e5-7fff-0c34-92f4-455ebe8ab0a5"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Where does the SMERD community exist?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Smokers, Meat-Eaters, Religious and Drivers made</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">a tactical alliance to resist</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">the Council in the year the Council had</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">a Secularisation Task Force. Now</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">that's morphed to Faith Concerns Committee, some</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">joke of SMERD Officers and wonder how</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">any could march to such a plural drum.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Is SMERD the future of the city? Or</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">is it, so far from being here to stay,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">a common cause there's no more reason for?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Mayor's mourning his son. He cannot say.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">We get their leaflets in our neighbourhood.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Good neighbours. It's a tangle being good.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I wrote this sonnet in December 2009, for a competition from 'Many Hands' whose theme I have forgotten. I <a href="https://twitter.com/AidanBaker/status/1708208617294282759" target="_blank">self-published</a> it in September 2023, as a quote-tweeted response to an observation by the political commentator <a href="https://twitter.com/chrisgreybrexit">Chris Grey</a>:</span></p><div class="css-1dbjc4n" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; align-items: stretch; background-color: white; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-rpnbwx" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 13px 0px 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-1b6yd1w r-16dba41 r-eaezby r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" data-testid="tweetText" dir="auto" id="id__l6k7pqk6av" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-overflow: unset; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-overflow: unset; white-space: inherit;">"I'm genuinely puzzled by the emergence of 'the motorist' as a political identity, as if people who drive cars have distinct set of priorities and values."</span></div><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-1b6yd1w r-16dba41 r-eaezby r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" data-testid="tweetText" dir="auto" id="id__l6k7pqk6av" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-overflow: unset; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-overflow: unset; white-space: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-1b6yd1w r-16dba41 r-eaezby r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" data-testid="tweetText" dir="auto" id="id__l6k7pqk6av" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-overflow: unset; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-overflow: unset; white-space: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit;">It's now been retweeted by </span><a href="https://kentandsurreybylines.co.uk/" target="_blank"><i>Kent and Surrey bylines</i></a>.</span></div></div></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p></span>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-80153915234580454242023-05-14T19:05:00.000+02:002023-05-14T19:05:06.235+02:00Fording the Humber<p><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">FORDING THE HUMBER</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Heebo, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dad said a bowler-hatted gentleman<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />in 1953 had traced a path<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />across the River Humber, two wet miles.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Dad was a trainee minister in Brough<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />in the mid-fifties. Was he an eyewitness<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />of the flamboyant lord’s achievement? Was this<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />old news that went on yielding stones for sermons<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />in his day? Since then, a few feet have trod<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />the Roman path the peer inferred amid<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />prevailing depths. And in another distance<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />the bridge’s towers scare you with their height.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Heebo, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;">I wrote the poem for a 2022 competition on the theme of byways. I don’t know why that theme stirred half-memories of my father’s recollection, which I must have heard five or six decades earlier. Dad died in 2011.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Heebo, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;">Revising my memories for the competition entry, I found that the man who’d forded the Humber was <a href="https://thepeerage.com/p19913.htm#i199122" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0088cc; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rufus Alexander, 2nd Baron Noel-Buxton of Aylsham</a> (1917-1980). He was invalided out of World War 2 and became a forces lecturer. Other day jobs he held were as radio producer and co-editor of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Farmers’ weekly</em>.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Heebo, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;">His book <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.wob.com/en-gb/rare-books/rufus-noel-buxton/westminster-wader/1682322388BWI" target="_blank">Westminster wader</a> </em>(1957) has much stream-of-consciousness writing and many overlaid visions of places at different times in history and prehistory. And accounts of his wadings in the Thames and the Severn.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Heebo, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;">The Aylsham of his peerage title is in Norfolk and he lived in Essex. He was therefore on what is now <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">East Anglia bylines</em>‘s patch.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Heebo, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;">And I, since 2021, have been a member of <i>East Anglia bylines</i>'s editorial team. It seemed to me that the achievement of a man from our patch, in its 70th anniversary year, was worth an article.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Heebo, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;">The article I wrote was a <a href="https://bit.ly/40radru" target="_blank">diary</a> of the brief cycle tour that <a href="https://twitter.com/Clare_Sansom" target="_blank">Clare</a> and I made in April 2023, from Woodall in South Yorkshire to Brough near Hull. And my peers allowed me to get away with including the poem in it.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Heebo, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;">If you don't already support the <i>Bylines </i>network of publications -- you should. They carry <a href="https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/more-sewage-higher-fines-anglian-water-punished-again/" target="_blank">river information</a> far more important than who's walked through the Humber.</p>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-67174962692261553522023-04-01T12:13:00.000+02:002023-04-01T12:13:31.912+02:00Poems in The punch<p><a href="https://thepunchmagazine.com/the-byword/poetry/the-poetry-issue-2023-reality-check-and-other-poems" target="_blank">My appearance in <i>The punch</i></a> is unconnected with <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_(magazine)" target="_blank">Punch or the London Charivari</a></i>, the humorous magazine that died twice round about the millennium. <i>The punch</i> is an Indian magazine published online, and it has a poetry issue once a year. </p><p>The contributions of mine that they accepted were all written in response to workshop prompts from Jo Bell.</p><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Alegreya, serif; font-size: 36px; line-height: 44px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: georgia;">Aired</span></h1><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">The ionosphere's</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">temperature changes spurred</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">me in my teens: Europe's</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Cold War hate to listen to,</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">pocket radio by night.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Greenhouse gases lie</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">miles below that: troposphere,</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">closest to earth, smeared</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">with our heat and travelling.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Our smoke turned to a blanket.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">See me reading up</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">which of those two things is which,</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">the Cold War long gone.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Radio's ways to listen</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">are more, and the hates they air.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Alegreya, serif; font-size: 36px; line-height: 44px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: georgia;">Answers</span></h1><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">No, not unlisted, listed in a spreadsheet.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">They had to filter lines and hide columns.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">They had to copy to a data stick.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">They crouched over the screen in a guesthouse bedroom.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">They crouched over it Darlington to Peterborough.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">They crouched over it in two waiting rooms.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">They got the sums ready for off in time.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Best not admonish them to keep spreadsheets</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">in strict perspective, means to a workplace end. </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Alegreya, serif; font-size: 36px; line-height: 44px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: georgia;">On Attempting to Transcribe the Calls of Birds</span></h1><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Sea! Sea! ship ship ship ship</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Gulls deep inland feel the nip.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">chopakaching? chipakachong!</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Phonemes, spelling, away from song.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">teeoo chapacheecheechee</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">The kite sounded like that to me.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">teeoo wintu</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">shwipu shwipu</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">What birds sound like that to you?</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">chibatchbrrrrr</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Not nailed accurate but nailed tear.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">shfwh shfwh shfwh shfwh</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">The wipe sound has not rhyme enough.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </div><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Alegreya, serif; font-size: 36px; line-height: 44px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: georgia;">Reality Check</span></h1><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Is it rope, or a repurposed something,</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">hose, say, or heavy-duty power cable?</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">It’s grey, with thin green line, and holds those bushes</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">back from the path. People don’t turn hoses</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">or power cords to that. But the reel’s mount –</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">yes, rope reels can have mounts. They say at sound</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">of hoofbeats think horses not zebras. Mounted</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">rope reels are horses. Not real horses, no.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Mounted rope reels horses, repurposed power</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">cables zebras. Hose repurposed to hold</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">bushes zebras stroke unicorns. That’s not</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">zebras stroking unicorns. They wouldn’t.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">It’s between zebras and unicorns, </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">or both zebras and unicorns together.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">And reading this are many who have seen</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">mounted thick grey rope with a stripe of green.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </div><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Alegreya, serif; font-size: 36px; line-height: 44px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: georgia;">Stones</span></h1><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Something to do with photocopying.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Something to do with tapping babies’ noses.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Something to do with social distancing.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Something to do with singing in the street.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">“There’s been an allegation made.”</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Something to do with bikes and toucan crossings.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Something to do with things on the computer.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Something to do with money, with work money.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Something to do with that self-service checkout.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">“There’s been an allegation made.”</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Something to do with church and the young people.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Something to do with fifty years ago.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Something to do with social media.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Something to do with XR friends and demos.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">“There’s been an allegation made.”</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Old Standard TT", serif; font-size: 20px;" /></div>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-30168126184249273902023-02-06T23:03:00.006+01:002023-02-07T10:47:38.703+01:00Looking up<p> </p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>LOOKING
UP</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Wearisome
at-poem acknowledgements --</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">not
"After X" but "hub-gear reference</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">from
X's 1997 play </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
track</span></i></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"
-- displagiarise the work, or may.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
if I read with search to hand online,</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
joy at how much learning becomes mine:</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
play's plot, and its failure, X's switch</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">from
plays to teaching, X's crowd-fund pitch</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
2015, where the scent goes cold,</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
20s German models who first told</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
stories in the play, the engineers</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">they
mocked, the fireless basis of their fears, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
40s seeming vindication of</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
kludge in post-war rebuild some still love,</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
60s doubts. With all these I withdraw</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">my
charge the lengthy credits were a bore.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">This was another poem written in response to a prompt in Jo Bell's <i><a href="https://fiftytwopoetry.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">52: write a poem a week</a></i>. The prompt in this case was number 47, for a poem about learning, though the poem is wholly fictitious.</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">It reached self-publication when I posted it as <a href="https://twitter.com/AidanBaker/status/1621452400711155712" target="_blank">three tweets</a> among the replies to one by <a href="https://twitter.com/ninaparmenter" target="_blank">Nina Parmenter</a> on the subject of references in poems.</p>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-7452958246979650552022-12-30T22:27:00.004+01:002023-01-02T00:02:58.788+01:00Sophia<p> <b>SOPHIA AND SOPHIA AND SOPHIA</b></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Sophia, </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">and</span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">
Sophia, </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">and</span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">
Sophia.</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">My
love. Before</span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">
my </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">tale
of</span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">
twist</span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">ing</span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">
folk,</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">before </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">joke
turned to wound</span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">
and </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">wound
to joke,</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">before the Merry Andrew</span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">'</span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">s
puppet plays,</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">before </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">night</span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">
Mazard, </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">down
and up and maze,</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">before </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">the
games with cash and with desire</span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">,
</span>
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">I
was found, a breathing baby in a bed.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">I
played in many beds, found you, and wed.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB"><br /></span></span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">This poem was my contribution to the project <a href="https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/26-orphans-writing-project/" target="_blank">'26 orphans'</a>, which the writers' group <a href="https://www.26.org.uk/" target="_blank">26 Characters</a> mounted in the autumn of 2022, in collaboration with the <a href="https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/" target="_blank">Foundling Museum</a>. Participants were invited to choose a famous orphan from a list and write in the orphan's persona. </span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">My choice was Tom Jones, the hero of Henry Fielding's 1749 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_Tom_Jones,_a_Foundling" target="_blank">novel</a> of that name. For those not familiar with the novel, which I read for the first time in pursuit of this project, I can summarise it thus:</span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">"</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Foundling
Tom is set on winning the hand of Sophia</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-GB">.</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-GB">After
a trail of c</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">omic
adventures, misadventures, blunders and crimes between Somerset and
London</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-GB">,
they marry."</span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">I had better say that the poem owes much to editorial suggestions by <a href="https://twitter.com/WendyJonesWJ" target="_blank">Wendy Jones</a>. I read the poem to a small gathering in the museum in October 2022, and it seemed to go down well.</span></p>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-64125647726701891902022-11-26T17:29:00.002+01:002023-12-25T18:00:52.820+01:00The energy debt song<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>THE ENERGY DEBT SONG</b></span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">(tune 'St Anne' </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bit.ly/3V2mgJm&source=gmail&ust=1669566086042000&usg=AOvVaw0xpK3advvIEnvlO0NmP4Vr" href="https://bit.ly/3V2mgJm" rel="noreferrer" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/3V2mgJm</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> )</span></i><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">O government, the cost of gas</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">and electricity</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">soars in your power. We pray you slash</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">the bills for energy.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Your people's debts for heat and light</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">grow darker through your reign.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We pray you write them off today</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">and see us thrive again.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Pray insulate the nation's homes</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">and cheapen keeping warm.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Pray own the firms whose profits cast</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">these shadows to our harm.</span><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">(arising from campaign demands by Debt Justice at </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://bit.ly/3OhIBRa&source=gmail&ust=1669566086042000&usg=AOvVaw1VJgcVVcvI-iEzJ-NUFmGN" href="http://bit.ly/3OhIBRa" rel="noreferrer" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/3OhIBRa</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> )</span></i><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /></div><div><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></i></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This was sung by self and other activists at a street stall in Cambridge in November 2022. It </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">versifies a petition arising from the cost-of-living crisis. The </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">tune is William </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Croft's splendid melody often used for 'O God, our help in ages </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">past'. I like to hope it lends the present words a little of its </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">dignity.</span></div>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-20477142337130650732022-09-23T00:33:00.005+02:002023-12-25T18:02:08.242+01:00The loss and damage song<br /><br /><b>THE LOSS AND DAMAGE SONG</b><br /><br />(tune ‘Personent hodie’)<br /><br />Climate change and its wounds —<br />what the world needs is funds,<br />funds of billions of pounds,<br />more than just a bandage,<br />more than I can manage.<br />Come COP27,<br />work to make things even,<br />put those pounds on the grounds,<br />mending loss and damage.<br /><br />Let’s make sure our UK<br />is among those that pay.<br />We have dirtied our day<br />with our years’ pollution.<br />Here’s a resolution —<br />match the ash, ash, ash<br />pounds with cash, cash, cash.<br />It’s a wash, and a bash<br />at a best solution.<br /><br />Should this nation pay more<br />when its people are poor?<br />Let the burden be for<br />dirty corporations.<br />Wipe them with taxations!<br />Tax ’em hard, hard, hard,<br />double-starred, starred, starred —<br />make their guilt and their gains<br />climate reparations.<div><br /></div><div>We of Global Justice Cambridge sang the above song as our contribution to a day of action in support of such a fund as the song describes. See our <a href="https://bit.ly/3BGt8UO" target="_blank">blog post</a> for a view of the day's activity.</div>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-45649457703996490432022-09-16T19:30:00.000+02:002022-09-16T19:30:22.057+02:00A movement<p> </p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><b>A MOVEMENT</b></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Does
there exist, and</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">has there
ever existed,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a
movement to make</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the muddy
plain strewn with wrecks</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and lost
goods west of Lisbon,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that
people witnessed</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">some time
All Saints' Day morning</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">1755,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the new
Atlantic normal</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">all
oceans should aspire to?</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In less
than an hour </span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">sea came
back, racing horses,</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">smashing
all it touched.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Normal
for when plates collide.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Not
normal for living by.</span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;">This poem was written in response to a prompt in <a href="https://twitter.com/Jo_Bell" target="_blank">Jo Bell</a>'s workshop '<a href="http://jobell.org.uk/?fbclid=IwAR20KI-2LFIX2WiPrGNBR1ciWHScdsFTWKPCBZQv8inMq55Amyytlp1j7W4" target="_blank">Try to praise the mutilated world</a>', which she ran as a closed Facebook group in November 2020. The workshop was for the duration of the UK's second Covid-related lockdown, and the prompt that led to this poem was #7, on the theme of cataclysm. I can't now remember why I made it the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1755_Lisbon_earthquake" target="_blank">1755 Lisbon earthquake</a>.</span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 133%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;">'A movement' has now found publication in </span><i style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><a href="https://www.acumen-poetry.co.uk/" target="_blank">Acumen</a></i><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"> #104, September 2022.</span></p>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-45265318636173173242022-08-13T18:40:00.005+02:002022-08-13T19:18:21.601+02:00Poems from the hobby that gave this blog its name<br /><br /><b> BLURTMETRY AFTER A YEAR </b><br /><br />Yes, capturing the blurts. The first fine power <br />of bringing down went with blurtmeter one. <br />The day came when I took the counter off <br />to turn a key, and dropped it on hard stone. <br /><br />I don't know where the count had got. The impact <br />logged one more blurt, a false one. And the ten <br />seconds elapsed and my lapcounter, my first <br />blurtmeter, did not start timing again. <br /><br />And neither pressing buttons, either button, <br />nor lapse of minutes, hours, let it move on. <br />The power that went with my first blurtmeter went <br />no more, after the stone floor. It had gone. <br /><br />Now, flaunted less, and worn on belt not finger <br />and keeping up the log's blurtmeter three. <br />But the blurtrate fumes, rages (not soars -- nothing <br />soared when its essence was so fidgety).<br /><br /><br /><div><b>BLURTMETRY ON WHEELS </b><br /><br />Keeping track of blurts <br />during a white-knuckle ride <br />in a forest night, <br />not daring the blurtmeter <br />so finger-counting through grip <br /><br />of the handlebars -- <br />over the handlebars light <br />finds the pale earth track <br />by the darkness to each side. <br />The bike bends to the pale line <br /><br />unexpected, fast <br />at the steepnesses and turns. <br />No moon, no water, <br />but the pale line recalls such <br />and I keep track of the blurts. <br /><br /><br /><b> A YEAR AFTER BLURTMETRY <br /></b><br />Blurtmeter 4, with self-clip plastic strap, <br />on day one hit its terminal mishap. <br />Bright August morning. I biked north and found, <br />mid-journey, my kit must have hit the ground, <br />miles back, perhaps. Enough. The game died thus. <br />Facebook friends wrote: "This is hilarious!" <br />One more year, and blurtmetry's overgrown <br />(as in path not schoolboy). The name lives on <br />in my new blog, the story should I need <br />to neutralise odd speakings, and instead <br />of blurts I mark each day's peak breathing flow, <br />or roads I've gone and how I chose to go. <br />Knowledge somebody else requires to know.<br /><br /><br />Yes, blurtmetry. The name of this blog. It's a hobby I <a href="http://bit.ly/stbNBP" target="_blank">invented</a> in 2006, and followed for a little more than three years. The above poems, written between 2007 and 2010, give it as much chronicle as it needs. They have had public utterance insofar as I read them to an online meeting of <a href="#">Enfield Poets</a>, who had us of <a href="#">Ver Poets</a> over as guests on 4 August 2022.<br /><br />The blurts themselves were the subject of an <a href="#">earlier sequence</a>.</div>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-76139759502905594042022-04-12T18:42:00.002+02:002022-04-12T18:42:26.262+02:00A Manchester chaplain<p> <b style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, serif; font-size: 12pt;">THE
REV. JOSHUA BROOKES 1754-1821</b></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><i><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(to
the tune 'Manchester' by Thomas Ravenscroft </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://bit.ly/3AN0foh" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/3AN0foh</a>
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">)</span></span></span></span></span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
writer </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">stresse</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">d
how like they were --</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
antiquated pile</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">with
weathered points and mouldering stones,</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
chaplain in the aisle.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Obituary
fondness for</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
chaplain's gaffes and rage.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
seems the chaplain read the tale;</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he
marked the printed page.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
chaplain died within the year.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
church lived on to do</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">its
work among the things that set</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">its
city with the new.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">This poem was my entry in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Cathedral" target="_blank">Manchester Cathedral</a>'s <a href="https://www.manchestercathedral.org/news-events/news/manchester-cathedral-600-poetry-competition-winners/" target="_blank">600th Anniversary Poetry Competition</a>. Before Manchester Cathedral was a cathedral, with a dean, it was a collegiate church with a chaplain, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Brookes_(divine)" target="_blank">Rev. Joshua Brookes</a> was of that line. He was something of a character, the subject of what you might call a 'pre-obituary': a profile article entitled '<a href="https://bit.ly/3D4Oj1P" target="_blank">Brief sketch of the Rev. Josiah Streamlet</a>' in <i>Blackwood's magazine</i> <b>8</b>(48), 633-637, March 1821. That's the starting point of this poem.</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">And it has now been sung in public! By me, at an event to <a href="https://stm.org.uk/giving">raise funds</a> for rebuilding work at St Martin's church in Cambridge. They let me sing several of my <a href="https://bit.ly/3juhhjU" target="_blank">hymn tune retextings</a>, and these benefited much from accompaniment by Mike Cole.</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The tune '<a href="https://bit.ly/3AN0foh" target="_blank">Manchester</a>', by the way, is also known as 'Ely'. In time I will find out which came earlier. But I felt its qualities well suited Joshua Brookes. Synaesthetically, it made me see bushy eyebrows.</p>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-72878500391392386402022-04-10T23:30:00.008+02:002022-04-29T15:52:20.339+02:00Three tree poems<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4zb0lyp1Qrt9XSMRQsnlfLiRtu3UGRutbSMRTYoEKYvrpKTWW7Hgdz2BzB2sGPLCMy01enfADpe_Ae6e5nnhCVALxCNyY_rT1JdChd1y53BsdIyLtjGIfb7U-gPeWuotZiQ3BU5uhbmOUp4sK8dsMbhUzYbhnG7XVKuRf-usaiIUAdBnghBFX9lSs/s640/IMG_1372.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4zb0lyp1Qrt9XSMRQsnlfLiRtu3UGRutbSMRTYoEKYvrpKTWW7Hgdz2BzB2sGPLCMy01enfADpe_Ae6e5nnhCVALxCNyY_rT1JdChd1y53BsdIyLtjGIfb7U-gPeWuotZiQ3BU5uhbmOUp4sK8dsMbhUzYbhnG7XVKuRf-usaiIUAdBnghBFX9lSs/s320/IMG_1372.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><i>Picture by Clare Sansom</i><p></p><p align="left" class="western" style="break-before: page; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; page-break-before: always;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>HAVING
BANANAS</b></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Vexed
by the appeal's</span></p>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">planting
banana seeds</span></i></span></span><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
line,</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">our
botanist friend</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">would
donate no cash that year.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Someone
wrote to Christian Aid.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Wikipedia's</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">'Banana'
discoveries,</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">rich
like one per line:</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">seeds
spiky, hard, cracking teeth,</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">genes
too same, vulnerable,</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif", serif; font-size: 14pt;">nomenclature
skein,</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">name-calling
for republics,</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">handy
for preaching,</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">sometimes
hanged to make a point,</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">sometimes
matter for fair trade.</span></span></span></span></div>
<p align="left" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<div style="break-before: page; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>SINCE
KILMER</b></span></span></div><div style="break-before: page; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Since
Kilmer knew he’d never see</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">a
poem lovely as a tree,</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and
trees get felled, and poems penned,</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">why
have a contest that will tend</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">to
make the skew worse? Bards, why bother</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">competing
to compose another?</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
answer is that words are good</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">for
people who have missed the wood,</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">or
seen the wood and missed the tree.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Maybe
you see them both. Not me.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Faced
with a woodland scene, I need</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">programmes,
subtitles I can read. </span></span></span></span></span></div>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 0; widows: 0;"><b style="font-family: "Liberation Serif", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></b></p><p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 0; widows: 0;"><b style="font-family: "Liberation Serif", serif; font-size: 14pt;">TOUCHES
OF EARTH</b></p><p align="left" class="western" style="break-before: page; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; page-break-before: always;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Earth-wild</i>:
a tangled query when she'd heard<br />
of fennel children but not seen
the word,<br />
and wanted books from this fool who had read<br />
assuming
fear in how the word was said.<br />
<br /><i>
Earth-soiled</i>: a soiled
sheet brought Wilde down. They cleanse<br />
soil from carrots
by acid. Changing lens,<br />
you see the carrots in their acid
skin<br />
endangering the eat of what's within.<br />
<br /><i>
Earth-rooted</i>:
what I mean by this is not<br />
the waste of being rooted to the
spot,<br />
but roots to anchor, roots to store soil food,<br />
roots
you can almost hear grow in that wood,<br />
holding the earth as deep
as making height, <br />
trees striving from it into air and
light,<br />
proud in a mode of growth those who know tell<br />
plants
came at independently and well, <br />
neat, robust way through
eco-stress.<br />
I'll stop before I wish the trees
success.<br />
<br /><i>
Earth-bound</i>: not -using, as in house- or
bed-;<br />
serious earth, cue Larkin's many dead.<br />
The end of all
that rootedness and growing.<br />
Let's call it homeward bound, but
it's a going.</span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">I read this set of three poems at an <a href="https://bit.ly/34UzF1X" target="_blank">open-air event</a> in Cambridge University's Botanic Garden. This had originally come to my attention via my wife <a href="https://twitter.com/Clare_Sansom" target="_blank">Clare</a>, who'd seen an announcement on one of her science journalism email lists. </p><p align="left" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">'Having bananas' is new, and was written specially for the event. </p><p align="left" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">'Since Kilmer' was written in 2004, for a competition celebrating the 90th anniversary of Joyce Kilmer's poem '<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12744/trees" target="_blank">Trees</a>'. </p><p align="left" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">'Touches of earth' was written in 2014 for the <a href="https://keats-shelley.org/" target="_blank">Keats-Shelley Memorial Association</a> competition, whose theme that year was the Tennyson quotation "Who loves me must have a touch of earth". Guinevere, in the Arthurian romance <i><a href="https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/tennyson-lancelot-and-elaine" target="_blank">Lancelot and Elaine</a></i>, is scorning Arthur's perfection. But I made no reference to the original context in the poem.</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">'Since Kilmer' and 'Touches of earth' were previously published in the booklet for the 'Remarkable world of trees' exhibition at <a href="https://www.stalbansmuseums.org.uk/visit/st-albans-museum-gallery" target="_blank">St Albans Museum</a>.</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Botanic Gardens event was the brainchild of <a href="https://twitter.com/AnneThomas239" target="_blank">Anne Thomas</a>, and others whose work featured there were <a href="https://twitter.com/RosalindCMoran" target="_blank">Rosalind Moran</a>, <a href="https://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/forward-prizes-for-poetry-2/ann-gray/" target="_blank">Ann Gray</a>, and <a href="http://linesofmigration.co.uk/" target="_blank">Matt Howard</a>. An illustrious company to find myself in!</p>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-34439507066192152452022-01-14T23:13:00.002+01:002022-01-15T18:07:56.277+01:00The statue<p> </p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>THE
STATUE</b></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
panels round the plinth, to shield</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
sponsor's vanity,</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">embed
his moving in the herd,</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">confer
impunity,</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">say
Bristol citizens erected</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Colston's
memorial.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
Arrowsmith had to make up</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">fifteen
percent shortfall.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A
longer fall had it come down</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
cheers and denting crash,</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">be
rolled along the street logwise,</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">bigger
than common trash,</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
railings of the waterfront</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
river-plunging shock.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
lies on wood</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
with</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
perspex shield</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">now,
and some tried to block</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
show with human shield no-show.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Deleted
tweets </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">distil</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that
phase. Others, not blockers, wish</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
fall were longer still.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
</p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The above was written in June 2021 for a competition on the theme of shielding, and then not entered, possibly from a misreading of the competition rules.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It has found publication in the online journal _<a href="https://www.sledgehammerlit.com/post/the-statue-by-aidan-baker">Sledgehammer</a>_.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It owes something to Thomas Ravenscroft's hymn tune '<a href="https://hymnary.org/tune/bristol_ravenscroft" target="_blank">Bristol</a>', though I don't advise singing it to that tune. It owes rather more to Roger Ball's post '<a href="https://www.brh.org.uk/site/articles/myths-within-myths/" target="_blank">Myths within myths -- : Edward Colston and that statue</a>' and Dan Hicks' '<a href="https://artreview.com/lets-keep-colston-falling/" target="_blank">Let's keep Colston falling</a>'.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></p>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-21056311460829286402022-01-13T00:00:00.002+01:002022-01-13T00:30:07.314+01:00The forgettory<p> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>THE FORGETTORY</b></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Prove they were
in, twelve years ago, a craze</p><p style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">they claim they've
always shunned? Or let the phase</p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">lie back? “I
never went there” was more sad</p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">than “You won't
let that go” after I had.</p><p style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">This is another poem whose only claim to publication is that I threw it into a Twitter conversation. That was in 2019, and I have already forgotten what circumstances triggered the action. </p><p style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">I wrote the poem in 2010, and I've forgotten the reasons for that now, too. My half-memory is that it was for a competition, and written on a bus journey with the rules out of sight, so that the poem turned out to be in some way unsuitable when I looked at them again.</p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">My memory is not what it was, but I don't see much value in a forgettory. I grew out of nostalgia a long time ago; I regard state-sponsored nostalgia as an abomination; and I consider memory to be a valuable corrective.</p>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-31244297142092868752021-12-28T13:31:00.002+01:002021-12-28T13:31:18.472+01:00Admonition to a goat<p> </p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>AN
ADMONITION</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Goat.
Your tether's outside -- not here indoors</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">among
the canine, feline, rodent loves.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">They
can be mostly harmless with their paws.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Please
do not clamber on me. You have hooves.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This is another poem written in response to a prompt from <a href="https://twitter.com/Jo_Bell" style="font-style: normal;" target="_blank">Jo Bell</a>'s book <i><a href="https://ninearchespress.com/shop#!/52-Write-a-poem-a-week-Start-Now-Keep-Going/p/57205171" target="_blank">52: write a poem a week. Start now. Keep going</a>. </i>Chapter 51 -- the penultimate chapter -- noted that very few poems had been written on the subject of goats, and encouraged readers to make good that deficiency. It is now six years since the book was published, and we may hope that the deficiency no longer exists.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I have very little experience of goats. I met one in 1979, whose behaviour was as reproved in the poem.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The poem's washed up here on the blog, having been deployed by me in a Twitter conversation in March 2021. I can't remember what that was about, but it renders the poem ineligible for entry in most <a href="http://bit.ly/hCBXtC" target="_blank">competitions</a>, and thus entitled to this present place.</span></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></p>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-32660259051566757022021-12-27T16:09:00.000+01:002021-12-27T16:09:09.284+01:00Four songs by Samuel Barber<p> </p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><b>FOUR SONGS BY SAMUEL BARBER</b></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P42L-j9pq0" target="_blank">Arpeggio flare</a>. The nun's high cry that springs not fail. The swell
quietened, the unseen swing of the sea.</span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxjLAwl8L20" target="_blank">jaunty solitude</a>. Madge and what her friend dared not think when
young. Margery with them, tight-lipped at the knowing.</span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62DmULpUdhE" target="_blank">smaller rolled chord</a>. Weep for wonder, in a life disputed decades
afterwards, at the kindness, the wholeness, of this shining night.</span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=392yrIKpadQ" target="_blank">fourth song</a> has a lot of sharps and naturals all over it. Sometimes,
to be clever, I've compared our diet to music with a shifting tonal
centre, "like something by Samuel Barber". I was surprised
that the first three songs of the set, when I looked at the music,
didn't have that many more key changes than songs by other people.
Barber said the music for this fourth song just popped out – not
laboured, then – but admitted he wasn't all that keen on the text.</span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
first three songs are jaw-dropping.</span></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The above was written in 2018, when I was working my way through <a href="https://twitter.com/Jo_Bell" target="_blank">Jo Bell</a>'s <i><a href="https://ninearchespress.com/shop#!/52-Write-a-poem-a-week-Start-Now-Keep-Going/p/57205171" target="_blank">52: write a poem a week. Start now. Keep going</a>. </i>The brief for this </span><span style="font-family: arial;">particular</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">one was chapter 22, calling for a prose poem. It was a new departure for me, who use rhyme and scansion as a rule, but there's no law of nature dividing prose from poetry. I had a go.</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The piece was published in the online journal <i><a href="https://ricjournal.com/2021/04/23/four-songs-by-samuel-barber-aidan-baker/" target="_blank">RIC</a>. </i>They used <a href="https://bit.ly/3g6ojeu" target="_blank">another</a> of mine, at about the same time, which has also <a href="https://bit.ly/3g6ojeu" target="_blank">appeared</a> in this blog; one </span><span style="font-family: arial;">with similar origins to 'Four songs by Samuel Barber' above, and</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> of the same kind, which I haven't made a habit of in the years since 2018.</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Are you familiar with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Barber" target="_blank">Samuel Barber</a>'s 'Four songs', op.13?</span></p>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-14682951458827462522021-12-26T15:32:00.007+01:002023-12-25T18:03:02.713+01:00New words to old tunes<br /><br /> <br />Here are two campaign songs I wrote during 2021 and sang at demonstrations.<div><br /></div><div>The first was in connection with Global Justice Now's <a href="https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/our-campaigns/pharma/" target="_blank">campaign</a> for the dropping of patents on vaccinations against Covid19. The demonstration was outside AstraZeneca's Cambridge premises, during their AGM in May. The tune is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Vaughan_Williams" target="_blank">Vaughan Williams</a>' 'King's Lynn', which became <a href="https://26project.org.uk/26weeks/aidan-and-robin-reflection/" target="_blank">for me</a> the signature tune to Lockdown 1 in March 2020. I wrote an <a href="https://bit.ly/2X4wh03" target="_blank">article</a> about the tune's story for the online news outlet <i>East Anglia bylines</i>, and am following that up with <a href="https://bit.ly/3nRNp4E" target="_blank">explorations of other hymn tunes</a>.<br /><b><br /> </b><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>THE ASTRAZENECA SONG </b><br /><br /> <br /> <br /><br /> (to the tune <a href="https://bit.ly/2UaZHWy" target="_blank">King's Lynn</a>) <br /><br /> <br /> <br /><br /> We call on AstraZeneca <br /><br /> to make their patent free. <br /><br /> It's funded by the taxes <br /><br /> of folk like you and me. <br /><br /> The firm met the occasion <br /><br /> to get the vaccine done. <br /><br /> Now let it be their doing <br /><br /> but not a thing they own. <br /><br /> <br /> <br /><br /> We call on AstraZeneca <br /><br /> to make their price pledge fair. <br /><br /> We hear what's outsourced to Pune <br /><br /> gets higher prices there. <br /><br /> We hear of countries with three times <br /><br /> their needed vaccines stored, <br /><br /> and others where vaccine's a thing <br /><br /> nobody can afford. <br /><br /> <br /> <br /><br /> We call on AstraZeneca -- <br /><br /> they're short of engineers -- <br /><br /> to have more sharing of knowledge <br /><br /> in world health with their peers. <br /><br /> Think COVAX and its makers, <br /><br /> think Salk who long ago <br /><br /> gifted his treatment to the world <br /><br /> and conquered polio. <br /><br /> <br /> <br /><br /> We call on AstraZeneca <br /><br /> to take Joe Biden's lead <br /><br /> and waive their rights in the vaccine <br /><br /> according to the need. <br /><br /> We see the Covid-19 <br /><br /> Technology Access Pool. <br /><br /> We ask big pharma, ask this firm <br /><br /> to let the pool be full. <br /><br /> <br /> <br /><br /> We call on AstraZeneca <br /><br /> and others in the field <br /><br /> to see more in their drugs than <br /><br /> the profits that they yield, <br /><br /> to listen to the protests <br /><br /> today outside their door. <br /><br /> Poor sort of wealth it is consists <br /><br /> in keeping others poor. <br /><br /> <br /> <br />For <a href="https://www.facebook.com/100073511161092/videos/874677173418149" target="_blank">Cambridge's demonstration</a> on the <a href="https://cop26coalition.org/gda/" target="_blank">Global Day of Action for Climate Justice</a>, in November, I wrote a song to a tune by the seventeenth-century composer Henry Lawes. It's a fine, strong, angular tune. The link at the tune's name, below, will take you to its entry in hymnary.org , and you'll find a recording there. I took it somewhat faster than that at the demo (50’28” in the film).</div><div><br /></div><div>The song lists the outcomes we hoped for from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference" target="_blank">COP26</a> in Glasgow, which was running at the time.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyone who can tell me how the tune came by its name will be listened to with great interest. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farley_Castle" target="_blank">Farley Castle</a> near Reading was built about two centuries after Henry Lawes' time. The name might refer to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farleigh_Hungerford_Castle" target="_blank">Farleigh Hungerford Castle</a> in Somerset, which saw action and changed hands during the Civil War. Was Lawes ever there? Or was the tune named retrospectively by a hymnbook editor? Or is there some other story?<br /><br /><br /><b>COP26, HERE'S WHAT WE WANT TO SEE<br /></b><br /><br /><br /><br />to the tune '<a href="https://bit.ly/311VSGp" target="_blank">Farley Castle</a>' by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lawes" target="_blank">Henry Lawes</a> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />COP26, here's what we want to see.<br /><br />Unblock the route to cleaner energy!<br /><br />Corporate courts must never own the rules!<br /><br />Cut them away, those harmful bosses' tools!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />COP26, wherever oil is found,<br /><br />coal, fossil gas, let them stay underground.<br /><br />Earthquakes and fires have been the warning signs --<br /><br />fund the transition, all who funded mines!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />COP26, we want more jubilee!<br /><br />Debt locks the global south's dependency,<br /><br />debt saps green work, saps every healthy spend,<br /><br />some debts are bad and doubtful. Have them end!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />COP26, unmake the harm we made,<br /><br />hold the UK to useful climate aid,<br /><br />rich countries' reparations and our share,<br /><br />small to our GDP and only fair.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />COP26, write new rules that will bind.<br /><br />See those with power hurting humankind,<br /><br />see how their years have left the planet scarred,<br /><br />hard work to tie them, work to tie them hard!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />CC BY-SA 2.0<br />Arising from campaign demands presented at <a href="https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/our-campaigns/climate/" target="_blank">https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/our-campaigns/climate/ </a></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Earlier fruits of my interest in places that have given their names to hymn tunes are my Google Maps <a href="http://bit.ly/2NOp3Iu" target="_blank">list</a> of those in the British Isles and my <a href="https://bit.ly/2XZQYr2" target="_blank">retextings</a> of 'Trentham' and 'Little Cornard'. Another person who shares this interest is <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBrowse" target="_blank">Mark Browse</a>, whose book <i><a href="https://www.markbrowse.net/o-little-town/" target="_blank">O little town: hymn-tunes and the places that inspired them</a> </i>I strongly recommend.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-8814003099303668952021-04-12T00:21:00.001+02:002022-01-09T17:01:40.563+01:00Tongues<p> </p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Open Sans, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>TONGUES</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Open Sans, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all --</span></i></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 12pt;">glad
my reading of Mr Gloucester in Mr Shakespeare's play was liked so
much by that paper --</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><i style="font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 12pt;">yet
in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding,</i></p>
<p class="western" style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I'd
rather read 5 words that would go in a flier about throwing bottles
away,</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><i style="font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 12pt;">that
by my voice I might teach others also,</i></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 12pt;">if
this will help others understand,</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><i style="font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 12pt;">than
ten thousand words in an unknown tongue --</i></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 12pt;">than
10,000 in the tongue of 400 years ago.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Open Sans, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Bible
reference 1 Corinthians 14. 18-19, Authorised Version; other lines
made using Up-goer Five Text editor <a href="http://bit.ly/1lfezKI">http://bit.ly/1lfezKI</a>
) </span></i></span></span></span></span></span>
</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Open Sans, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></i></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">This poem is another written in response to a prompt in Jo Bell's <i><a href="https://ninearchespress.com/publications/poetry-collections/52writeapoemaweekstartnowkeepgoing.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">52: write a poem a week</a></i>. The prompt, by guest author <a href="https://www.philipgross.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Philip Gross</a>, was for a macaronic poem -- one written in two or more languages, or two or more registers of English. So I took a direct quotation from the Authorised Version of the Bible, and rendered it into the 1000-word vocabulary of Up-goer Five. I wrote <a href="https://blurtmetry.blogspot.com/2013/02/music-about-fighting.html" target="_blank">more about Up-goer Five</a> in February 2013.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal;">
The poem has now found publication in the Indian magazine </span><i style="font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal;"><a href="https://bit.ly/3s1b6qs" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">RIC</a>. </i>The magazine title is an acronym for Red In Corner, one of its tenets being "No sublime human creation is perfect; it’s the little failed detail, the RIC, that turns it into a masterpiece."</p>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-4347443748065086822021-03-06T18:22:00.000+01:002021-03-06T18:22:16.473+01:00Counter protest<b>COUNTER PROTEST</b> <div><br /></div><div>I do not want to take part in this rally. </div><div>Us against them. Which one is an Aunt Sally? </div><div>I hope, noticing me and this placard, </div><div>they will not come across and kick me hard. </div><div>I hope no stage will need me to decide </div><div>whether to rescue someone on our side, </div><div>and none remind me, every year I live, </div><div>I was cowardly or provocative. </div><div>I hope for space to let my bladder settle </div><div>not in a crowd, not in a police kettle. </div><div>We'll make the point against the wretched man, </div><div>and get away as early as we can.
</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>This poem was written in July 2018, a response to prompt 38 in Jo Bell's <i><a href="https://bit.ly/2Wjc5n7" target="_blank">52: write a poem a week</a></i>. The brief was to write against something. Reluctance to take part in a counter-protest is about as against as anything can be.</div><div><br /></div><div>I went on the counter-protest I describe, and my anxieties proved, as usual, to be groundless. I can supply details of the causes on request.</div><div><br /></div><div>The poem found publication in the booklet <i>All together now</i> from <a href="https://www.babylonarts.org.uk/" target="_blank">Babylon Art Gallery, Ely</a>. The gallery ran a competition for poems to be made into a comic book. Mine wasn't the winner, but <i>All together now</i> gave a print opportunity to all the submitted work.</div>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-59601018817094168792021-01-21T14:24:00.001+01:002021-01-21T14:27:05.349+01:00Poem about Royal Victoria Dock<p> </p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>AUGUST 2020</b></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Harbour. Geese crowd </span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-weight: normal;">on
something almost submerged</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">and rhyme the pulley tackle close
aloft.</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Human swimmers enthuse the water,
them</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">and cable cars more safe to view
than mix.</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The reach between Millennium
abandoned</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">and Excel’s mothballed
Nightingale, with bridges,</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">lifts, bridges engineered to swing,
less swum.</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Covid turns high summer to out of
season.</span></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The star circle is of another time.</span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The above was my contribution to <a href="https://bit.ly/35lOIik" target="_blank">'A common place'</a>, a project organised jointly by the writers' group <a href="https://www.26.org.uk/" target="_blank">26 Characters</a> and <a href="https://www.eamesfineart.com/" target="_blank">Eames Fine Art</a>. Looking back to <a href="https://www.26.org.uk/projects/26-prints-2" target="_blank">'26 prints'</a>, an earlier co-production (<a href="http://bit.ly/2ozN8Bg" target="_blank">my contribution here</a>), they invited writers and artists who'd participated in that to pair up, identify a place that mattered to both partners, and produce work in response to it. My assigned project partner was the printmaker <a href="http://www.anitaklein.com/" target="_blank">Anita Klein</a>. The common place we identified was the Royal Victoria Dock in London. For me, it was a place much imagined in childhood, when I had an overwhelming interest in ships and fantasized about the docks over the river that was in walking distance from my grandparents' home in Lee Green. For Anita, it was a recent discovery with the joys of open-air swimming. Clare and I had a good day out there, and this poem came from that.</span></p>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-56156996416855932082021-01-19T19:10:00.003+01:002022-04-30T15:41:30.131+02:00Poems to hymn tunes: 'Trentham' and 'Little Cornard'<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>SAM
HUGHES (1824-1898)</b></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">(To
the tune <a href="http://bit.ly/34XVkQC" target="_blank">'Trentham' </a></span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> . Acknowledging <a href="http://bit.ly/2PWbcPB" target="_blank">'A lament for Sam Hughes: the</a> </span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://bit.ly/2PWbcPB" target="_blank">last
great ophicleidist' </a>by Trevor
Herbert </span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i> </i></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">)</span></i></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Trentham
where he was born,</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Three
Mile Cross where he died,</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">these
framed the triumphs of his breath:</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he
played the ophicleide.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Fanfares,
chromatic runs --</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he
played not only these,</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">but
gentle phrases softly breathed</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
bands' strong harmonies.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">He
could have stayed in Wales,</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">grown
Welsh, you say, secure</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
comfort and admirers' love,</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a
champion and more.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">He
could have learned the new</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">smart-prized
euphonium,</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">cheaper
and easier, and lived</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">rich
with well-earned income.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Footnote
to Trentham's tune.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Not
Wales, nor progress, he.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Your
prose undims his instrument.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">He
died in penury.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">LITTLE CORNARD</span></span></b></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">(to
the tune ‘<a href="https://bit.ly/3g5dE05" target="_blank">Little Cornard’</a>)</span></i></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><span style="font-family: arial;">Sing of a breaking world!<br />Nations to strive and part,<br />points of the compass spin,<br />nothing is found at heart,<br />and what you mean by south and north<br />and west and east has lost its worth.<br /></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sing
of a breaking myth!<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Dragon
on dragon fight!<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">How
did the tale arise,<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">shouts
in a Suffolk night?<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">No
dragon-real time’s known to be,<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">not
even fifteenth century.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sing
of a breaking rule!<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Derailment
injuries,<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">horrible
grandeur fail,<br />
</span><span style="font-family: arial;">nothing
of that in these:<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">van
bearing matter for a drain<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">smashed
with a level crossing train.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sing
of a breaking sea!<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Deep,
deep and deep their call,<br />
</span><span style="font-family: arial;">waves
that are high for waves,<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">boats
and a hard landfall.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Our
voices falter praying for<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">all
those in peril on the shore.</span></div><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I mentioned in <a href="http://bit.ly/35Zd93g" target="_blank">my blog post on Boxing Day 2019</a> that I had a</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <a href="http://bit.ly/2NOp3Iu" target="_blank">Google Maps list</a> of British Isles places with </span><span style="font-family: arial;">hymn tunes </span><span style="font-family: arial;">named after them. T</span><span style="font-family: arial;">he <a href="https://www.placesofpoetry.org.uk/" target="_blank">Places of Poetry</a> map, where I'd posted some of my work,</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> was re-opened briefly for posting in October 2020, and I nipped in and put these two poems of mine on it. </span></div><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But henceforth my ignorance shows. I'd like to know why <a href="https://hymnary.org/person/Jackson_R?tab=tunes" target="_blank">Robert Jackson</a>, a church organist in Oldham, chose to name a hymn tune after </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trentham,_Staffordshire" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">Trentham</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> in Staffordshire, some fifty miles away. Similarly about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shaw_(composer)" target="_blank">Martin Shaw</a> and </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Cornard" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">Little Cornard</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> in Suffolk. Come on, Aidan, you're a librarian. There's a wealth of published material about these chaps, especially Martin Shaw. Have a look.</span></div><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: left; widows: 2;">
<br />
</p>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-76124092487513818232020-05-13T00:53:00.001+02:002022-04-10T23:58:50.568+02:0026 Trees<b>COMMON/PRIVATE</b> <br />
<br />
Paired, my trees mark gates of the old workhouse <br />
(now private residential streets, like many), <br />
surround themselves with (I’ve just learned this word) <br />
suckers – new growth that gardeners control. <br />
Their bark is grey. Not photo grey but live, <br />
gnarled and with recent branches offering <br />
leaves greenfly have holed. The trees stand tall, <br />
one bent. The tree book keeps them with X rating.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This was my contribution to the <a href="https://26project.org.uk/26trees/" target="_blank">26 Trees project</a>, one of many from <a href="https://www.26.org.uk/" target="_blank">26 Characters</a> that have stimulated me since 2015. My brief was to write 62 words of prose or verse about an individual lime tree (a pair of them was acceptable) in Cambridgeshire, plus 400 words on the background to the species. Click on the project link above, then follow your nose.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The ex-workhouse is <a href="http://www.workhouses.org.uk/StIves/" target="_blank">that of St Ives</a>, Cambridgeshire -- across the River Ouse from the town, and now on the eastern edge of the village of Hemingford Grey, whose <a href="http://bit.ly/2t0GrvQ" target="_blank">manor house</a> drew an unrelated <a href="http://bit.ly/36RIbe0" target="_blank">poem</a> from me in 2018. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The X rating is the mark given to the Common Lime in Alan Mitchell's <i>The trees of Britain and Northern Europe</i>, which rates the gardenworthiness of trees as follows:</div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
I -- first-class</div>
<div>
II -- good</div>
<div>
III -- mediocre</div>
<div>
X -- little or nothing to commend it.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And one question in the 400 background words remains unanswered. Who was this elusive French chemist Missa, and in what century did they live?<br />
<br />
26 Trees was a joint project with the <a href="https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/" target="_blank">Woodland Trust</a>, who generously presented participants with saplings of their species. What I did with mine is this:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipQq9eJFp754NggV_Qg22Vew-EwuGv8zzZj2s0JI_MMo9VeCaL2mUIxpnodunX1u3Br9qYXHKOOUojRMh_JO0QBnhlfgGo5lHLQCj0NCGV88h-m8GOBViOmCgMbGeC97gCWb7mXwqgo0A/s1600/IMG_20191130_113159+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipQq9eJFp754NggV_Qg22Vew-EwuGv8zzZj2s0JI_MMo9VeCaL2mUIxpnodunX1u3Br9qYXHKOOUojRMh_JO0QBnhlfgGo5lHLQCj0NCGV88h-m8GOBViOmCgMbGeC97gCWb7mXwqgo0A/s320/IMG_20191130_113159+%25281%2529.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
It's in! For <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TreeCharterDay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">TreeCharterDay</a>, my <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/26trees?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">26trees</a> lime from <a href="https://twitter.com/WoodlandTrust?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WoodlandTrust</a>. Planted in the grounds of <a href="https://twitter.com/WorksopPrioryCE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WorksopPrioryCE</a> by their kind permission, and with help from <a href="https://twitter.com/hughcrispin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@hughcrispin</a> & other green-fingered kin. Dedicated to parents Ivon & Barbara Baker (1928-2011 and 1932-2008). </div>
<br /></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-81504519307470394612020-05-03T01:21:00.000+02:002020-05-03T11:21:19.696+02:00A letter to the Second World War<br />
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>A
LETTER TO THE SECOND WORLD WAR</b></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br />
</b></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Dear
Mrs War,</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
one middle-aged Britons hanker for,</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">you
happened, so you're not there any more.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Why
do we lack, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">seeing
your legacies, the will to hack</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">them
for our own day and not want you back?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">What
should I say?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Not
being there, you cannot go away.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Please
fade. Napoleon's did. They had their day.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 15.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 15.4px;">This poem was originally written in response to one of the prompts in Jo Bell's </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15.4px;"><a href="https://ninearchespress.com/publications/poetry-collections/52writeapoemaweekstartnowkeepgoing.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">52: write a poem a week</a>. </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 15.4px;">It was for number 20, to write a poem in the form of a letter. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 15.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 15.4px;">It has attained no publication higher than self-publication as part of a social media conversation. I tweeted it in response to colleague Clare Trowell's <a href="https://twitter.com/ClareTrowell/status/1255080836019499013" target="_blank">disquiet</a>, working from home on a rainy day, at the sound of a Spitfire beyond the clouds.</span>Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3416306269810335232.post-69139651678692703032020-05-02T22:17:00.000+02:002020-05-02T22:17:41.943+02:00This song of gladness<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><b>This Song Of Gladness</b></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><i><b>Beautiful Saviour</b> by Stuart <span class="il">Townend</span></i></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">Verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, greater chorus –</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">yes, a structure to fit the song’s ideas:</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">verse worship, work, ordinary time,</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">and chorus echoing something more.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">Less sung now than it used to be in our church,</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">unexpected that Sunday in the Spring.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">New out of hospital, I sang it loud,</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">loud as recovery let me sing.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">Biblical language, resonant names of God,</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">let’s say clear day, let’s say vista,</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">let’s say journey which has made.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">We felt it raise us, we felt it let us see,</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">with our gathering, yes, our gathering</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><i>flying higher than before</i>.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">True, nothing inherent in this structure,</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">which I’ll call A A B A B B dash.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">It will not beautify each pairing known</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">but may serve others, like this song.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">Biblical language, resonant names of God,</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">let’s say clear day, let’s say vista,</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">let’s say journey which has made.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">We felt it raise us, we felt it let us see,</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">with our gathering, yes, our gathering</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">flying higher than before.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">Biblical language, resonant names of God,</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">let’s say clear day, let’s say vista,</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">let’s say journey which has made.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">We felt it raise us, we felt it let us see,</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">with our gathering, yes, our gathering</span></i></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "garamond" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><i>flying high, high over all.</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
This poem was originally written in response to one of the prompts in Jo Bell's <i><a href="https://ninearchespress.com/publications/poetry-collections/52writeapoemaweekstartnowkeepgoing.html" target="_blank">52: write a poem a week</a>. </i>It was for number 42, to write about a song. I chose to write about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Townend_(musician)" target="_blank">Stuart Townend</a>'s worship song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcLaKihLfaQ" target="_blank">'Beautiful Saviour'</a>. After the rediscovery described in the poem, <a href="https://twitter.com/Clare_Sansom" target="_blank">Clare</a> and I spent a Sunday lunchtime talking about the song's structure.<br />
<br />
"It will not beautify each pairing known" -- we thought a bit about whether the structure in its most basic terms -- AABABB' -- would have much effect on every pair of things put into it. We tried a couple:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Portugal, Portugal, Finland, Portugal, Finland, Finland in winter
</li>
<li>60s nurse film, 60s nurse film, cement mixer, 60s nurse film, cement mixer, cement mixers
</li>
</ul>
<br />
and concluded that the structure had no magical power to be inherently uplifting.<br />
<br />
The poem has now found publication in <i><a href="http://bit.ly/1Md8mtj" target="_blank">Orbis</a> </i>191, spring 2020. It has benefited somewhat from suggestions by editor <a href="https://bit.ly/2VXbith" target="_blank">Carole Baldock</a>.<br />
<br />
Regarding church music more widely, I continue to add to my Google Maps <a href="http://bit.ly/2NOp3Iu" target="_blank">list</a> of places in the British Isles that have given their names to hymn tunes, with 273 at the last count. During lockdown I have developed an addiction to Ralph Vaughan Williams' tune <a href="https://bit.ly/2UaZHWy" target="_blank">King's Lynn</a>.Aidan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804901032011139096noreply@blogger.com0