THE SQUARE & COMPASS: A FOLKSONG CYCLE FOR ST. MARY'S ISLAND BY G. F. PHILLIPS

G. F. PHILLIPS WRITES:

My current project is The Square & Compass: A Folksong Cycle for St Mary’s Island and Its Surrounds, North Tyneside. It is a collection of poems as song lyrics that has been set to music by folksong composer, John Bushby. The sixteen songs run chronologically and follow the compass point from North, North East to North and tell of the island and the nearby land’s history.

‘What happened over those years between 1722 and 2006 on St Mary’s Island maybe slight, being its little narratives, but it gave those folk a voice, their incidents, however brief, of lives lived, now written and sung about.’

Here are two extracts:

At compass point North, North East Last Drop of Ale is a tall story in the tradition of gallows humour.

Chorus.

Michael Curry’s had his last drop of ale (2)

He had this rage and he killed the landlord

So they hung him up; he’s as stiff as a board.

Now one man’s wager is another man’s pledge (2)

And four pints of ale can be yours all free

If you ask of the corpse, “How are you Curry?”

At compass point West South West a dispute breaks out in Dodging Bullets:

Old Ewen blames Joe Patterson

For letting out his field

That Joe is in the army’s keep

If anyone gets killed

Dodging bullets

Old Ewen says they fly his alehouse way.

Dodging bullets

On stepping stones over the island stray.

A CD and an accompanying 38pp booklet of my lyrics with historical notes and a three page article is on sale (see www.gfphillipswriter.co.uk for details).

LION AND LAMB

Early September,

ice begins to grip our hearts.

Ash from a long smoke, the city lies.

Ghostly images of our fathers rise,

drift in the blood-thick smog.

The traffic snarls,

dead bodies rot and clot in our veins,

dust blown into cul de sacs.

8.45, a Thursday night,

a senile couple stagger in from the mist.

They order half pints,

the old man sniffs,

his eyes the faint grey of a wintry sky.

The old woman’s face is ruddy, bloody,

creased like the neck of a tortoise.

She mumbles to him

and he mumbles back.

‘Liar!’ she shouts.

‘Quiet!’ he says and raises a hand in warning.

‘Liar!’ again,

‘Liar!’ again

but louder she cries.

‘Sharrup you old bag!’

‘Liar!’ she cries,

‘I gave you a pound!’

‘No!’ he replies.

‘Liar, you liar!’

‘Quiet you bag!’

They sip their half pints and rise.

He steps outside.

We hear his stick tap.

She shuffles, bow legged, to the door.

A pool of urine gathers round her feet,

she trails it out into the street.

They are lost in a whirl,

a merry-go-round.

I see their desperate hands grope in the night,

flail against the glass outside.

Blood spatters windows,

runs to the earth,

seeps and nourishes birth;

birth of new dreams,

new schemes.

It seems,

tonight,

a new sense of fear is born.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

TUEBINGEN/DURHAM POETRY & MUSIC NIGHT AT ELM TREE, DURHAM

PHOTOS BY PETER DIXON & CYNTHIA LONSDALE

VISITING POETS FROM DURHAM'S TWIN CITY OF TUEBINGEN

As part of the ongoing literary exchange between Tuebingen and Durham, Anna Fedorova and Yannick Lengkeek will be performing with local poets and folk musicians at Ye Old Elm Tree, Crossgate, Durham City at 19.30 on Thursday 12th November. All welcome. 

You can also catch them in the Williams Library at St Chad's College, University of Durham on Friday 13th November at 15.00. Please put the word around about this.

FURTHER INFORMATION FROM DR KEITH ARMSTRONG, NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS TEL. 0191 2529531.

Anna Fedorova

I was born in Charkow (Ukraine) in 1992. I have

lived in Germany since the age of 5. I grew

up in Stuttgart and I have studied art history and

philosophy in Tübingen since 2012.

Founder member of "Dichterkammer" in

Tübingen which is a collective of young

writers. I was recently published in the literature 

magazine "trash pool".

Yannick Lengkeek

Born in 1992 in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Grown up in Padua (Italy) and Reutlingen. Since 2012 studies of rhetoric and history at the University of Tübingen. First reading in Tübingen at the Hölderlin tower in 2013 during the Bücherfest. Publication of several poems in "trash pool" magazine. Active member of the Dichterkammer Tübingen. Several readings and co-organization of smaller literature events in Tübingen.

TYNESIDE POETS PHILLIPS & ARMSTRONG LIVE AT THE GRAINGER MARKET 180TH!