October 3, 2023 11:56 pm
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DENIS GLOVERMusic – Paul Kelly (Sony/ATV) When Tom and Elizabeth took the farmThe bracken made their bed,And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodleThe magpies said. Tom’s hand was strong to the ploughElizabeth’s lips were red,And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodleThe magpies said. Year in year out they workedWhile the pines grew overhead,And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodleThe magpies said. But all the beautiful crops soon wentTo the mortgage-man instead,And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodleThe magpies said. Elizabeth is dead now (it’s... View Article
October 3, 2023 11:56 pm
Published by ntechmedia
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINSMusic – Paul Kelly, James Ledger and Alice Keath(Sony/ATV/Control) I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion, kingdomof daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawnFalcon, in his ridingOf the rolling level underneath him steady air, andstridingHigh there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimplingwingIn his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend:the hurl and glidingRebuffed the big wind. My heart in hidingStirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of thething! Brute beauty and... View Article
October 3, 2023 11:55 pm
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A.D. HOPEMusic – Paul Kelly and James Ledger (Sony/ATV) For every bird there is this last migration:Once more the cooling year kindles her heart;With a warm passage to the summer stationLove pricks the course in lights across the chart. Year after year a speck on the map, dividedBy a whole hemisphere, summons her to come;Season after season, sure and safely guided,Going away she is also coming home. And being home, memory becomes a passionWith which she feeds her brood and... View Article
October 3, 2023 11:54 pm
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MIROSLAV HOLUBTranslated by George TheinerMusic – Paul Kelly and James Ledger (Sony/ATV) She sat on a willow-trunkwatchingpart of the battle of Crécy,the shouts,the gasps,the groans,the trampling and the tumbling. During the fourteenth chargeof the French cavalryshe matedwith a brown-eyed male flyfrom Vadincourt. She rubbed her legs togetheras she sat on a disembowelled horsemeditatingon the immortality of flies. With relief she alightedon the blue tongueof the Duke of Clervaux. When silence settledand only the whisper of decaysoftly circled the bodies and... View Article
October 3, 2023 11:53 pm
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JUDITH WRIGHTMusic – Paul Kelly and James Ledger (Sony/ATV) Their tiny torrent of flightsounds in the trees like rainflicking the leaves to the light—a scattered handful of grain,the thornbills little as bees. I hear in the blowing treesthe sudden tune of their song.Pray that the hawk not sees,who has scanned the wind so longfor his small living food. Oh let no enemiesdrink the quick wine of bloodthat leaps in their pulse of praise.Wherever a trap is setmay they slip through... View Article
October 3, 2023 11:53 pm
Published by ntechmedia
THOMAS HARDYMusic – James Ledger (Sony/ATV)Lead vocal – Alice Keath The thrushes sing as the sun is going,And the finches whistle in ones and pairs,And as it gets dark loud nightingalesIn bushesPipe, as they can when April wears,As if all Time were theirs.These are brand-new birds of twelve-months’ growing,Which a year ago, or less than twain,No finches were, nor nightingales,Nor thrushes,But only particles of grain,And earth, and air, and rain.
October 3, 2023 11:52 pm
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JOHN KEATSMusic – Paul Kelly and James Ledger (Sony/ATV) My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness painsMy sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,Or emptied some dull opiate to the drainsOne minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:’Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,But being too happy in thine happiness,That thou, light-wingèd Dryad of the trees,In some melodious plotOf beechen green, and shadows numberless,Singest of summer in full-throated ease. O for a draught of vintage! that hath beenCool’d a... View Article
October 3, 2023 11:49 pm
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EMILY DICKINSONMusic – Paul Kelly and James Ledger (Sony/ATV) “Hope” is the thing with feathers –That perches in the soul –And sings the tune without the words –And never stops – at all – And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –And sore must be the storm –That could abash the little BirdThat kept so many warm – I’ve heard it in the chillest land –And on the strangest Sea –Yet – never – in Extremity,It asked a... View Article
October 3, 2023 11:49 pm
Published by ntechmedia
GWEN HARWOODMusic – Paul Kelly (Sony/ATV) Daybreak: the household slept.I rose, blessed by the sun.A horny fiend, I creptout with my father’s gun.Let him dream of a childobedient, angel-mind old no-sayer, robbed of powerby sleep. I knew my prizewho swooped home at this hourwith day-light riddled eyesto his place on a high beamin our old stables, to dream light’s useless time away.I stood, holding my breath,in urine-scented hay,master of life and death,a wisp-haired judge whose lawwould punish beak and claw.... View Article
October 3, 2023 11:47 pm
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W.B. YEATSMusic – Paul Kelly and James Ledger (Sony/ATV) A sudden blow: the great wings beating stillAbove the staggering girl, her thighs caressedBy the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,He holds her helpless breast upon his breast. How can those terrified vague fingers pushThe feathered glory from her loosening thighs?And how can body, laid in that white rush,But feel the strange heart beating where it lies? A shudder in the loins engenders thereThe broken wall, the burning roof... View Article
