https:\/\/laurenceroman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/01-Track-01b.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\nOutside the door lies John Hempton, of this city,<\/p>\n
A man who lived by ink and words proclaiming now
In chiselled letters, \u201cBrief life is here our portion,
Brief sorrow, short-lived care.\u201d Best leave him to his earned
Peace and come into the cool choir vestry where utility
Has quarry-tiled the floor, green-tiled the wall, has set
Up two wooden benches as plain seating, has placed
A hand-towel next the white sink with its one cold tap.<\/p>\n
The light that seeps like frost between the netted lead
Is as glazed as the sheen that falls from a corpse-candle.
Its fluorescence as opaque as a northern winter\u2019s dawn.
Its lucidity an invitation to jettison all that is
Not certain.<\/p>\n
Shut fast the gate. Repair the wall.
Burnish the black cannon.
Kindle the naked light.
Day and night illuminate truth; the one truth
That appears clear and vivid, even in moonlight.<\/p>\n
Purpose is thrust into form. Derry\u2019s gates are shut
Firm. The walls of Jerusalem are raised up.
The Foyle wills itself a blue lagoon complete with
Two ships a-sailing, always under sky-blue skies
A crimson flag is cemented into a blue sky:
Both hang over Donegal\u2019s undulating mountains
Competing with white puff-ball clouds for what space is left
Around the bright heads of the red, white and blue Defenders.<\/p>\n
By twilight, by the light of the half-moon, a fact
Light as thistle-down creeps in over the tiled floor
Stretches a revealing mulch over the lucid white-
Ness of the sink, inviting the light-headed to dance on the polished floor.
Tempting the light-minded to tip
Hats before images dulled in the black-backed mirror;
The form and colour of text and crest dissolve into moon-glaze.
Outside, the chiselled letters fill with rain-water.<\/p>\n
Poem – Sam Burnside<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Columba Canticles – Kyrie – The Choir Vestry Gloria in Excelsis The Chapter House The Nave – The Bell Tower Sanctus Sunday School – Agnus Dei 1. KYRIE \u2013 THE CHOIR VESTRY (Split into 2 files) https:\/\/laurenceroman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/01-Track-01a.mp3 https:\/\/laurenceroman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/01-Track-01b.mp3 Outside the door lies John Hempton, of this city, A man who lived by ink and words […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":62,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-72","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenceroman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenceroman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenceroman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenceroman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenceroman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/laurenceroman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":514,"href":"https:\/\/laurenceroman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/72\/revisions\/514"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenceroman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenceroman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}