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
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memories



my fragile memories are your fading dreams
these make the fabric of our world
flutter in the sunlit breeze
like sea that coruscates at dusk
before the beckoning darkness 
of universal night

the very sun that wakes your day
wakes too my brittle dream
and spills its soul into
the vapour of my shallow breath
and the tracings of my stare

but through the dulled greyness
of eyes now weak and strained by looking
glimpse half-shadowed living figurines
play out these fragile memories 
in song and dance and silent mime
deep inside the strumming sinews of my soul

my fragile memories fill my inner void
and gently strum the membranes
of my very self, my very inner self
which play out in the autumn gale
until the Winter freeze
binds them to the hard earth
in thin coatings of glistening light

see how your heavy footprints press
the precious glories of my frosted glaze
see how your sad feet journey through my past
and how their searching wakes the dream

my faded dreams are now your fragile souvenir
diluted into the thinness of my absent stare
which once you loved

I loved
I deamed
I lived

what was is gone

  • 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