Counterpoise

This week's 'Music Show', with Andrew Ford, on ABC's Radio National, opened with Hugh Crosthwaite's 'Counterpoise', a haunting work for solo violin.

The piece is played by Sarah Curro, who is interviewed, along with her husband Paul Davies, a luthier, about the different qualities of violins. It's a fascinating interview.

Hugh's piece was inspired by my poem, also called 'Counterpoise', published in my first book of poems, Angels, like laundry.

Counterpoise

 

Behind, beside, before;

once, nonce, hence – 

time pools in the present

tense; deeps of now brim– 

never to be reclaimed,

ever flowing silently away.

Mulch, mushroom, messmate;

foundation, footings, framework –

building begets spaces,

earth cleaves to sky;

light brings forth shadow,

action yields to rest – 

stone, plank, tile,

myrtle, moss, manure.

 

 

Pulse, breath, blink;

bone, flesh, hide –

inner engenders outer,

launches soaring dreams;

summer’s gold garnered for 

fecund swelling fall – 

pith, pulp, peel;

never, nigh, next -

New grows old, old

gives way to new.

On time’s curving arc, end-

ing is beginning –

former, forthwith, final:

past, present, prospect,

was, is, ever.