Memorable Moments from December 4
when Saltmarsh Poetry entertained itself
mostly with ekphrastic poems
John’s Mandela poem, ‘Near and Far’ was a lyric conceived as a
song to be sung by a baritone or tenor to music he has composed.
We hope to hear this in the future. Meanwhile our thanks to
Nigel for standing in, speaking the words for us.
‘Although near to you I now could see
You were far so far away from me
... locked, away
Blazing sun breaking stones all day ‘
Sue brought Vicki Feaver’s hilarious poem ‘Oi yoi yoi’, a tribute
to Roger Hilton’s abandoned naked woman of the same title.
‘And which one of us doesn’t occasionally
want one of the Old Gods to come down
and chase us over the sands.’
Evelyn’s poem-with-intermittent-music, ‘Just Four Minutes’, took
us back to the 60’s Government statement concerning the time
required to find shelter before annihilation from an atomic blast.
The music she chose to play was Missa “Et ecce terrae motus” by
a 15th century composer, Antoine Brumel.
‘too late to say sorry,
too late to worry,
I press my button
And a voice begins to sing’
To offset of technical and other hitches, ‘Ekphrasis’ also brought
up Wind in the Willows; a whelk shell; a tendency to fall over; a
Roman translation from 42 BC and several comments on the
word itself. There was a poignant love poem from World War I-
casualty, Edward Thomas.