The latest Podcast begins with a series of poems and piano pieces arranged by Marcelo and Mac. The first poem is “Tabacaria” written as an homage to the Portugese poet Fernando Pessoa, who wrote under the ‘heteronym” Alvaro de Campos, a fictitious character who lived in Tavira where Marcelo and Mac first met. The poem is accompanied by one of Marcelo’s own compositions “Prelude De Singiantu”.
The second reading is from Mac’s most recent collection “Solarium” and was inspired by the old grand piano at Trelissick House, a National Trust property that overlooks the Carrick Roads and Fal Estuary. The poem is titled “Trelissick Key” and Marcelo accompanies it in the style of Bill Evans (it was also included in the last podcast but is reprinted here in case you would like to read along with the recording).
From 'Solarium'
The piano
is returning
to a time when it was first tuned
the sounds of tested notes
reaching, slowly reaching
perfect thirds
augmented sevens
Once played
its first hesitantly hammered sounds
still quiver
quaking
between the countless molecules
comprising each hairline strand in the black soundboard grain
Imagine
those old disturbances of air
too far back in time for human ears
to divine
perhaps a dog
with more sensitive ears
could distinguish those long gone reverberations
and faintly hear that first strung infinity still,
syncopating
those old ghost sounds with every hopeful wag of its tail
just as it might hear a bat echoing by
mapping itself in the dark
closing in on prey
while the history or sound
though a silent nothing to us
still fades unendingly
in the machines we make
The third poem ‘Standing Stone’ – also from the Solarium collection – is accompanied by a beautiful waltz, the theme from the film My Sister’s Keeper.
28.10.16
I left no stone unturned and
fearing the worst
gathered them into weights and measures
inaccurate as escaping gas,
giving off the illusion of
scientific endeavour
and in the heavens where all goods lie
where evil is a fruit of choice
and depth of thought a thing
that covers women
and doubt
with threat
I saw beneath one well travelled stone
the thrown the slung the death
saw hibernating in hollow earth and
heard in the slumbering tectonic plates
the gravest vision
and paused before drifting on
I’ll meet you there as promised though
somewhat later than we’ve agreed
and if I don’t come you will know
time has joined the standing stones alone
and told the travelling ones to go
Lastly, Marcelo and Mac found a way to work together on ‘Mr. Mountain’, a performance poem that Mac explains has always being tied tightly to his heartstrings since he wrote it thirty years ago. ‘I always thought it was something that might never fit into anything other than itself. However while Marcelo and I were chatting about music and poetry, we started talking about the collaborations of Kurt Weill and Berthold Brecht, how the vaudville/cabaret style of their early work somehow fitted with the political satire they were working with creatively. Marcelo took up the style of Weill with what he described as “the happy piece” and we found ourselves transported into something that worked somewhere beyond our limited grasp of each other’s language.’
Lastly, we’ll leave Marcelo’s finale recital – the fourth and final installment – for next week, We hope you’ll come back to hear him breathe life into Charles’ piano. It was a spectacular end to a fantastic evening of poetry conversation and beautiful music, and like so many beautiful things in life is well worth waiting for.
Mac Dunlop will be acting as mentor to poet-in-residence Andrew Fentham until his residency ends in April as well as aiding in various centenary celebrations throughout the rest of 2017.
