IN LIMERICK TUESDAY 3RD MARCH

LIMERICK DAYS

The greyhounds lash along the track,

as fists bash on the windows of Limerick Gaol.

I am staggering in the darkness of White Wine Lane,

and my path lies lost in the rain.

Let the horses run wildly out of control,

like my brain on too much whiskey and gin.

Let them throw my heart off the broad Shannon Bridge,

I have to die somewhere and this night will do.

I shout my poems out to the odd few who’ll listen,

be it Wolfe Tone or O’Dwyer or Davitt or Griffin.

I am lying dead drunk in the People’s Park,

I am knocked out with girls on poor Punch’s Row.

O Limerick Days you are haunting my soul,

my songs cry out for your old Summer Street.

Make love when I pour you a glass of my verse,

with hope may it set your ancient soul free. 

KEITH ARMSTRONG,

Limerick.

THE STREETS OF TYNE

I kicked out in Half Moon Yard,

bucked a rotten system.

Fell out with fools in All Hallows Lane

and grew up feeling loved.

She dragged my hand down Rabbit Banks Road,

there seemed nowhere else to take it.

We mucked about in Plummer Chare,

soaked up the painful rain.

I wanted to control my life,

shout songs on Amen Corner.

I’d carry bags of modern ballads,

hawk pamphlets on Dog Bank.

Wild girls who blazed through Pipewell Gate

taught my veins to thrill.

I caught her heart on Pandon Bank,

my eyes filled up with fear.

Wanted to carve out a poem,

inspire the Garth Heads dreamers.

A lad grew up to dance along 

the length of Pilgrim Street.

I take my wild hopes now to chance

the slope of Dog Leap Stairs.

Follow the pulse of my Tyneside days,

burn passion down The Side. 

KEITH ARMSTRONG   

ON THE NAIL, LIMERICK!

LOVE POEM

In your damp bedroom,

wet with tears, we

broke bread together, 

bit

into the night 

and ate,

with the crumbs

of kisses in your eyes.

Your breath

flaming like the Kracow dragon,

your teeth flashed

sharp as fire 

as we

guided the slender trams into slumber

and I

promised you

fantasies

to kiss off your lights

and leave

me to nurse

my bites.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

Krakow, Poland

Кит Армстронг

ВАЛЕНТИНКУ В ПОДАРОК

В сыром от слез алькове

нас двое,

ночью преломивших хлеб любви

и на рассвете, подбиравших ласковые

крошки.

Следы от поцелуев на твоих глазах.

Ты дышишь, обжигая, словно

краковский дракон.

Бросает в дрожь острый блеск твоих

жемчужных зубок.

Изящно, нежно, невесомо два наших

трамвая бегут по рельсам страсти в

депо прекрасных сновидений.

Как обещал, гашу последним

поцелуем искры твоей истомы.

И наслаждаюсь в тишине

послевкусием сладких твоих укусов.

(Краков, Польша)

Translated by Yuri Stoma

Encounters in the Republic of Heaven

Trevor Wishart

Music: Trevor Wishart
Words: verbatim

Encounters in the Republic of Heaven takes everyday stories recounted by fishermen, farmers and city-dwellers in the North East of England, and, using new technology, transforms them into an enveloping musical experience: speech that waltzes, speech that harmonises, clouds of speech that circle the audience, culminating with speech that transforms into song.

The speaking voices: Douggie Douglas, Edna Gallagher, Alan Sambrook, Joyce Dent, Kathleen Teward, Claire Morgan, Sylvia Hanratty, James Bell, and Keith Armstrong, and the children of Ryton Comprehensive, Allendale Middle School, Bellingham Middle School, Haydon Bridge Community High School, Greenfield School Newton Aycliffe, Peases West Primary, Wearhead Primary and Newcastle Preparatory School, and students from the University of Durham Music Department.

Brass: George Cook, Gillian Enzor, Ray Farr, Paul Fothergill.

Genesis
The human language is an inexhaustible reservoir of musical material in which we are immersed every day. To make music out of speech, however, we have to be able to extract musical characteristics from the flow of language. In this respect, ENCOUNTERS IN THE REPUBLIC OF HEAVEN revisits the original journey of Peri and Caccini, who tried to retrieve the clarity of speech from the complexity of Renaissance polyphony and in so doing created the earliest experiments in opera.

From 2006, as Composer‐in-Residence in the North East, based at the University of Durham, I collected recordings of natural speech from across the region and developed software to extract the rhythm, melody (and implied harmony) and sonority of individual voices. The sounds have been assembled into an eight-channel, sonic panorama where individual stories, extended in a variety of musical ways, are embedded in the “orchestrated” community of speaking voices, encircling the listener.

I WILL SING OF MY OWN NEWCASTLE

sing of my home city

sing of a true geordie heart

sing of a river swell in me

sing of a sea of the canny

sing of the newcastle day

sing of a history of poetry

sing of the pudding chare rain 

sing of the puddles and clarts

sing of the bodies of sailors

sing of the golden sea

sing of our childrens’ laughter

sing of the boats in our eyes

sing of the bridges in sunshine

sing of the fish in the tyne

sing of the lost yards and the pits 

sing of the high level railway

sing of the love in my face

sing of the garths and the castle

sing of the screaming lasses

sing of the sad on the side

sing of the battles’ remains

sing of the walls round our dreams

sing of the scribblers and dribblers

sing of the scratchers of livings

sing of the quayside night

sing of the kicks and the kisses

sing of the strays and the chancers

sing of the swiggers of ale

sing of the hammer of memory

sing of the welders’ revenge

sing of a battered townscape

sing of a song underground

sing of a powerless wasteland

sing of a buried bard

sing of the bones of tom spence

sing of the cocky bastards

sing of a black and white tide

sing of the ferry boat leaving

sing of cathedral bells crying

sing of the tyneside skies

sing of my mother and father

sing of my sister’s kindness

sing of the hope in my stride

sing of a people’s passion

sing of the strength of the wind 

KEITH ARMSTRONG

TUEBINGEN BUECHERFEST 2015

There will be a Tuebingen/Durham event at the Buecherfest on Sunday 17th May, 15.00 at Club Voltaire. The event features myself, Tibor Schneider, Sara Hauser, Anna Fedorova, Yannick Lengkeek, Carolyn Murphey Melchers and Juergen Sturm.