DORSET COMPOSER - RICK BIRLEY
  • HOME [and contact form]
    • Rick Birley biography
  • Compositions [Orchestral works]
    • Peterloo
    • Symphony ["little bird"]
    • Bishops & Clerks >
      • The Flow
      • These Distracted Times
      • The Rechabite
      • Sunset Island
    • Latin Primer
    • Maverick
    • Christmas Exultation
    • Chamber Symphony in Five Movements
    • Variations on a Plainsong
    • Movement for String Orchestra "magnas inter opes inops"
    • A Little English Folksong Suite/ The Ploughboy
    • English Folksong Suite No.2
    • Chansons de France
    • Marat/Sade Suite >
      • Marat/Sade notes
    • Hebrew Songs of Love, Faith & Survival
    • Call to Remembrance - a meditation on The Last Post
    • Sar-planina - a Macedonian folksong
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope
    • Spanish Folksongs
    • Olympian Glories
    • Piano Concerto
    • Symphonic Suite for Piano & Orchestra
    • the Cuckoo - 'cello & chamber orchestra
    • A Dorset Rhapsody
    • Eight Orchestral Studies
    • Romney Facets
    • Lord of the Dance
    • Sea Song
    • Greensleeves
    • Blaydon Races
  • Compositions [Choral]
    • Compositions [choral/orch] - SACRED >
      • Advent Carol Succession >
        • Advent Carol Succession notes
      • Songs of Time
    • Compositions [Choral/Orch] - SECULAR >
      • Fern Hill
      • Universal Truth
      • Nine Welsh Folksong Arrangements
      • The Jackdaw of Rheims
    • Compositions [Choral a capella SACRED] >
      • Carol: I Sing of a Maiden
      • Gaudete, gaudete!
    • Compositions [Choral a capella SECULAR] >
      • The Birds’ Mass
      • Three Hardy Settings for unaccompanied choir
      • The Cuckoo
      • Dance to your Daddy
      • Three Motets
      • Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill
      • The Willow Song
      • My Love in her Attire
      • In Vernali Tempore
  • Compositions [Vocal]
    • Compositions [Vocal] SECULAR >
      • Edges
      • Seven Folksong Ballads
      • Hardy Songs
    • Compositions [vocal] SACRED >
      • The Virgin's Song
  • Compositions [chamber/instrumental]
    • Toccata: "On the Edge"
    • Butterfly in the Breeze
    • Austerity
    • Your Presence [piano/violin]
    • Quintet "magnas inter opes inops"
    • Minimalism
    • "Conversing with a Silent Marsh Harrier" for string quintet
    • Five Folksong Arrangements (for the Crucible)
    • Latin Primer [Septet]
    • Latin Primer [violin/piano]
    • Past Tense
    • in memoriam G B
    • String Quartet No.1
    • String Quartet No.2
    • Variations on a Plainsong - piano transcription
    • Variations on a Plainsong - original version for solo clarinet
    • March Wind
    • Papillons
    • Seven Preludes for Piano
    • Carol Preludes [piano]
    • Preludes [piano] >
      • 3 Preludes for Piano
    • Marat/Sade Suite [2-piano transcription]
    • Piano Sonata
    • Folksong Dance Suite for Cello & Piano
    • Dance to Your Daddy
    • Salutation Carol Prelude [piano]
    • Spanish Folksongs [2 piano version]
    • Grazioso (guitar solo)
    • Dorset Suite (guitar duo)
    • Drink Old England Dry: a Folksong Frolic for Busy Fingers
    • Sonatina for Violin & Piano [1979]
    • Donegal - a choral fantasy transcribed for piano
    • The Phoenix
  • Compositions [jazz/light]
    • Funked-up Bach
    • Basement Jazz
    • Too Darn Hot
  • A Dorset Affair
  • Compositions [Pastiche]
    • La Ronde
    • Zartom: Symphony
    • Hornby: Exultate Jubilate
  • The case for a National Rehearsal Orchestra for New Music
  • ARTWORK
    • Gallery - Room 1
    • Gallery - Room 2
    • Gallery - Room 3 [flowers]
    • Rogues gallery....
    • Pembrokeshire scenes i
    • Pembrokeshire scenes ii
    • Durham 'prints'
    • Picture Dorchester....
    • Italy October 2010
    • Paris
    • Prague
    • Miscellaneous
  • Poems
    • We English - a historical rhyme
    • Touching His Face
    • Commanded Time
    • Master of my Fate?
    • Alas, poor Ludo!
    • New Co-op Party Anthem
  • Rick Birley Blog
  • Miscellaneous
    • Maverick
    • Hobie Adventure Island >
      • Maiden Voyage 12.iii.11
  • Compositions [Miscellaneous]
    • Music Hall for Westfield
    • 60th birthday concert: May 24th 2014 Orchestral Concert

Index
​



I Am My Little World


 I am my little world, said he,
     And round about my soul 
          unfurled for all to see
The pennants of my lifeline flutter helplessly
In the silent hurricane of this other me
     Tattered, unravelled
          seams of my humanity
     Trailing in sparkling  threads
          of bright mortality.

There, there for all to see, he said,
Save by the sighted blind, who have no tear to shed.

I am my little world, said he,
     A willed and willing player 
          yet a hapless refugee
Unsewing pennants' seams creatively
Unpicking threads of fragility: 
     Wrapping new lines round sense
          to help me be
     Inured to life's nonsense,
          and its keen insensibility. 


July 5th 2010


  • HOME [and contact form]
    • Rick Birley biography
  • Compositions [Orchestral works]
    • Peterloo
    • Symphony ["little bird"]
    • Bishops & Clerks >
      • The Flow
      • These Distracted Times
      • The Rechabite
      • Sunset Island
    • Latin Primer
    • Maverick
    • Christmas Exultation
    • Chamber Symphony in Five Movements
    • Variations on a Plainsong
    • Movement for String Orchestra "magnas inter opes inops"
    • A Little English Folksong Suite/ The Ploughboy
    • English Folksong Suite No.2
    • Chansons de France
    • Marat/Sade Suite >
      • Marat/Sade notes
    • Hebrew Songs of Love, Faith & Survival
    • Call to Remembrance - a meditation on The Last Post
    • Sar-planina - a Macedonian folksong
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope
    • Spanish Folksongs
    • Olympian Glories
    • Piano Concerto
    • Symphonic Suite for Piano & Orchestra
    • the Cuckoo - 'cello & chamber orchestra
    • A Dorset Rhapsody
    • Eight Orchestral Studies
    • Romney Facets
    • Lord of the Dance
    • Sea Song
    • Greensleeves
    • Blaydon Races
  • Compositions [Choral]
    • Compositions [choral/orch] - SACRED >
      • Advent Carol Succession >
        • Advent Carol Succession notes
      • Songs of Time
    • Compositions [Choral/Orch] - SECULAR >
      • Fern Hill
      • Universal Truth
      • Nine Welsh Folksong Arrangements
      • The Jackdaw of Rheims
    • Compositions [Choral a capella SACRED] >
      • Carol: I Sing of a Maiden
      • Gaudete, gaudete!
    • Compositions [Choral a capella SECULAR] >
      • The Birds’ Mass
      • Three Hardy Settings for unaccompanied choir
      • The Cuckoo
      • Dance to your Daddy
      • Three Motets
      • Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill
      • The Willow Song
      • My Love in her Attire
      • In Vernali Tempore
  • Compositions [Vocal]
    • Compositions [Vocal] SECULAR >
      • Edges
      • Seven Folksong Ballads
      • Hardy Songs
    • Compositions [vocal] SACRED >
      • The Virgin's Song
  • Compositions [chamber/instrumental]
    • Toccata: "On the Edge"
    • Butterfly in the Breeze
    • Austerity
    • Your Presence [piano/violin]
    • Quintet "magnas inter opes inops"
    • Minimalism
    • "Conversing with a Silent Marsh Harrier" for string quintet
    • Five Folksong Arrangements (for the Crucible)
    • Latin Primer [Septet]
    • Latin Primer [violin/piano]
    • Past Tense
    • in memoriam G B
    • String Quartet No.1
    • String Quartet No.2
    • Variations on a Plainsong - piano transcription
    • Variations on a Plainsong - original version for solo clarinet
    • March Wind
    • Papillons
    • Seven Preludes for Piano
    • Carol Preludes [piano]
    • Preludes [piano] >
      • 3 Preludes for Piano
    • Marat/Sade Suite [2-piano transcription]
    • Piano Sonata
    • Folksong Dance Suite for Cello & Piano
    • Dance to Your Daddy
    • Salutation Carol Prelude [piano]
    • Spanish Folksongs [2 piano version]
    • Grazioso (guitar solo)
    • Dorset Suite (guitar duo)
    • Drink Old England Dry: a Folksong Frolic for Busy Fingers
    • Sonatina for Violin & Piano [1979]
    • Donegal - a choral fantasy transcribed for piano
    • The Phoenix
  • Compositions [jazz/light]
    • Funked-up Bach
    • Basement Jazz
    • Too Darn Hot
  • A Dorset Affair
  • Compositions [Pastiche]
    • La Ronde
    • Zartom: Symphony
    • Hornby: Exultate Jubilate
  • The case for a National Rehearsal Orchestra for New Music
  • ARTWORK
    • Gallery - Room 1
    • Gallery - Room 2
    • Gallery - Room 3 [flowers]
    • Rogues gallery....
    • Pembrokeshire scenes i
    • Pembrokeshire scenes ii
    • Durham 'prints'
    • Picture Dorchester....
    • Italy October 2010
    • Paris
    • Prague
    • Miscellaneous
  • Poems
    • We English - a historical rhyme
    • Touching His Face
    • Commanded Time
    • Master of my Fate?
    • Alas, poor Ludo!
    • New Co-op Party Anthem
  • Rick Birley Blog
  • Miscellaneous
    • Maverick
    • Hobie Adventure Island >
      • Maiden Voyage 12.iii.11
  • Compositions [Miscellaneous]
    • Music Hall for Westfield
    • 60th birthday concert: May 24th 2014 Orchestral Concert