'tis music makes us dream

Across the pond I do recall

stepping out onto octagonal apron

gazing out past buttressed nave

as Ely’s lantern-capped cathedral

stretches beyond my eye

“Rise up, my love, my fair one” we sing

into a gothic infiniteness

 

Have you ever sung in an astounding acoustic?

Come with me, let’s try it together

it’s like being wrapped in your warmest, coziest blanket

and yet underneath you find a consoling emptiness

spaciousness and depth

No sense that you can and will be enveloped

and then you sing something, anything

the sound goes out

(you can go and get a cup of coffee)

comes back eventually and surrounds you

enfolds and bathes you with its

ambient richness and added lustre

almost intoxicating

I recommend the Chapel of King’s College in Cambridge

visually stunning and two-dimensional in effect

four-dimensional in sound

 

I returned to all of them

alone

so contented

just to be in that space

Ely and King’s and Durham

Durham so palpably ancient with its

thick Norman pillars, all etched differently

unbutressed walls

and I was alone

with my companions Bede and Cuthbert

and sat in the quire

for evensong

alone but the choir

perfectly contented

 

[From "That Makes Us Dream" in I am Keats as you are by Glenn Peirson]

 

taken at Riverside Park, Guelph

my textures

Done