as heather curves (2021)

as heather curves sets the poem ‘Beara Peninsula’ by Eithne Strong. It describes the exhilaration and fearfulness of standing on a windswept cliff high above the Atlantic. Lasting just four minutes, the setting is for double choir. It was commissioned by Bernie Sherlock for the New Dublin Voices, with funding from An Chomhairle Ealaíon, Arts Council Ireland.

NL 2021

Beara Peninsula

There we are. See us now, high. Shock:
we cling, clutch in the bladed furze.
Fastnet far, flung on a foaming rock
in a wide empty water – a kind of fear:

that foaming band pulls down –
look up! that empty sea
charged full from wind and moon
compels our eye – oh up! look up!

What are we doing here with our mouths
laughing like the yellow gorse,
our skin in ecstasy as heather curves
to the windy clouds?

Eithne Strong
_{Text used by kind permission of the author’s estate.}