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Wildmoor Symphony
FIRST MOVEMENT (Minor Key)
Times such as these test body soul and mind
So should our thoughts be pain and dark confined
Or loosed to concentrate on brighter things
Like furry puppies, flowers and girls on swings
In this bright morning sun as I roved out
Past village houses waking to their days
With little gardens, blossoms all about
As all across this England’s pleasant braes
In scepticism native to my heart
With self restraint on humour that’s sardonic
Ever seeking inspiration to my art
I crossed Heath margin: gloomy and achromic
Then onward passing over black swamp marsh
Of putrid mud and roots round dead stumps curled
As sunlight penetrated tree top arch
I found myself in new and magic world
Tread higher then, along the wooded track
The earth grew ever brighter to my eye
The canopy now thin, then folded back
Til nothing seemed above me, only sky
A single buzzard circled in the blue
Then as my eye adjusted, were revealed
Another, then Red Kites made patterns new
With searching eyes they scanned the sunlit field
In echelon of helix high then higher
Direction by divine traffic control?
In choreographed flight dance; did they inspire
More birds to soar ethereal sky bowl
All Carnivores! life based upon life cycle
Thus nature’s way is seen in rhythm born
Seasons and the land each follow pattern tidal
(These barrows once stood bare in sand dune form)
In crisis deep we face a time of trial
Could soul’s perception give a way to vow
Whether raged against or treating with denial
All cycles shall complete; as then - so now
SLOW MOVEMENT
Boardwalk crossing
[1st version]
Advance from tall tree grove to broadened scene
Tympanic rhythm sounds adagio theme
As footsteps beat on path of wooden beam
In wider prospect watery levels gleam
And mirror brightening skies of cerulean
Look over to alternate view surveyed
Beyond the tawny grasses still smooth laid
Birch saplings dapple amber fern with jade
Where silver stems surround a sunlit glade
A tiny stream descends a small cascade
Above and way beyond the languid fen
Our destination draws our steps again
To rising slopes and fields of wider ken
Where spirits may move onward and ascend
Our measured pace continues until then
2nd MOVEMENT 2nd VERSION
I have rewritten this 2nd movement to imitate the rhythm of the hypnotic slow movement from Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. [The repeated: ‘DAA DIT DIT DAA DAA’ meter.]
The board walk, that crosses the marshy levels of Wildmoor Heath, is of wooden beams that sound a pitched beat when stepped on, like tuned orchestral tympani. (Kettle drums)
Incidentally, for music buffs, It seems to me that although the said 7th Symphony movement is marked: ’Allegretto’, it is normally played more like Andante.
SLOW MOVEMENT
Move out from tall trees - to wider scene now
Tympanic rhythm - andante theme
As footsteps beat on - path of the Ash beam
In diverse prospect - wet levels gleam
Look to the surface - life is reflected
Now mirrors brightening - skies cerulean
See over there the - new view surveyed now
Past tawny grasses - rough by wind laid
Birch saplings dapple - hazel and apple
Amber the dry fern - dashed now with jade
Where silver stems - surround sun-bright vale there
Small stream descends in - glistening cascade
Over above In - slow closing distance
Land rises to - overlook languid fen
Our destination - draws our steps on to
Reach barrow slopes - fields of wider ken
So measured pace continues ‘til then
While spirit moves to hilltop ascend
3rd MOVEMENT
Minuet & Trio: TRACKS THROUGH TIME
Sand and pebbles of this stoney way
Made a shore on warm Jurassic sea
Heathland barrows rising that we see
High dune desert, by great ocean bay
Where the thrush and warbler sweetly sing
Over gardens - flowers set in line
In a span of geologic time
Pterodactyls soared on scaly wing
Trails mid purple heather fronds touch light
Cross pine hurst with gorse in blossom gold
Wiley hunter tracked in days of old
Forest tiger, brazen eyes burned bright
Tracks through time
Forever refine
Creation’s tale sublime
4th Movement
FINALE: Sonnet in Major Key
Above the brightening vale in sun reborn
The barrow braes are clothed as we behold
Amid green pines the gorse and broom adorn
With blossoms swathing heath in cloth of gold
Below: the tarn’s once dark and baleful mien
Is now transformed with shining silver face
Neath damsel sapphire jewels in flickering gleam
Framed by a garland amber bracken lace
Now Nature flags the sign to all its kin
No longer to hold back its life elan
But flourish without caution and begin
The annual great cycle - sacred plan
The cast of strife-thrown shadows on our days
Shall be as life’s great rhythms: passing phase
Copyright ©
Geoffrey Brewer
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