Monday

Last Friday found me at the Hull2Scarborough Line's latest performance: 'The Enormous Yes!' And it was the best yet. Taking the words of Virginia Woolf and Philip Larkin as a starting point, it invited us to consider whether it is possible to touch joy without being in touch with the bleak. The fast paced work interwove poetry and prose - Wilsea's and Hodcroft's own in between Larkin, Woolf, Charles Lamb, Wendy Cope, Roald Dahl, Emily Dickinson, John Donne and others - with the music of First Quarter. It was a deft and entertaining exposition of what might make life worth living.

There was an extract from the lovely 'The Summer Day' by Mary Oliver:
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.

And some moving poetry from Wilsea and Hodcroft themselves, such as the exquisite 'Bosphorus' exploring what might happen to us when we are gone and the lovely 'My Daughter Danced at Your Wedding' about time passing and friendship.

I have heard rumour that 'The Enormous Yes!' will get another outing. I can recommend you sign up to hear when. Go to: www.suewilsea.co.uk and follow the links.