Poetry by Christie Dickason

Five Seasons, was first performed by the Bournemouth Sinfonietta Choir in Sherborne Abbey on 18th November 2006.,

First rehearsal with the choir

This is the moment of tilt. We hand over,
let go, abandon our child to its future alone,
trying not to cling and fuss.
They take the white sharp-cornered sheets,
these new warders to that fragile creature
now pinned down by dead straight bars,

our poor thing, hunted out from inner darkness,
an infant we've just begun to see,
our best shot, our all
dropped at their feet with wagging tails,
turned lumpish taxidermy now,
all life that we had imagined, failed.

We watch theor eyes devour,
hear only the thump of our own blood.
This is the moment of terror, the sigh
of the falling axe before the thus,
life already on its way to becoming
something else beyond our power.

This is the moment of truth.
What will the three of us become
when the axe is done with sighing?
They open their mouths.
White dives soar up
flying
flying.

Cecilia and I wrote 'Messenger' as a Christmas song for the Canterbury Chamber Choir shortly before we began the Organic Landscapes Project. This is where we were in Spring 2006 and where we return.