The End of Summer; Andrew Nicholson
Soon Autumn
will be here
with it’s dusty
and driving breeze
across fields
from the back of your house
where poppies would
previously dance with you
now spit in your face.
Autumn will hold your hand
when you run
to the train station
every morning
jagged with purpose
like it was
famous for 15 seconds.
Soon Autumn will be here
and on the road again
with leaves dangling
in the middle
of your garden
like a radiogram
of a old film.
Summer will be
dangling from a distance
just slightly out of reach
almost like a party
you had not been invited to
before the cold weather comes,
leaving,
leaving,
you wondering had it gone
before it had really started
returning to the small ads.”
Ballet
When I was young, maybe 7 or 8, my parents gave me a set of tapes, lots of classical stuff, what I was really into, though I didn’t realise it consciously at the time, was ballet music. To anyone who knows the first thing about classical music, my favourites were all pop hits, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Copellia, Giselle, Romeo and Juliette, you know the kind of thing.
Around a year ago a tune came into my mind from these times past, a time long forgotten when I would dance around the living room endlessly, feeling and moving every note, every rise and fall, every inch of the emotive music, something I couldn’t remember the name of. I remembered it clearly as the song which reminded me of a summers day, it was the tune which you should really listen to as you drifted down a river on a little punt, leaning back lazily as some dreamy lover pulled the oars. I remembered the main theme, the colours so clear in my mind, the red and gold, the leaves just starting to fall, the summer’s wane… but not the name. Damn it, not the name. I must’ve googled every Ballet Collection available and never clicked the right link. It frustrated me for evenings without count…..
Watching the Baltic Championships Ice Skating championships today I came across a pair who danced to a medley of ballet tunes including the one I had searched so long for. I found their ID and their current programme music and there it was!
Khachaturian - Spartacus - Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia
I’ve listened and listened and listened with my rum and coke for far too long already, so its time to share it with you. Close your eyes. You’re on a little wooden boat and its late summer. The leaves are turning and the wind is warm. You are all at peace with your gentle passion. And you want this moment to last forever…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvvZ2a0E9hQ&feature=related
(Apologies to all you ballet fans. I’d never seen the ballet itself, nor known the story before today - only heard the music and formed my own images of it in my head.)
