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MY SOUL AS A METAL SPINNING TOP (Episode 111)

MY SOUL AS A METAL SPINNING TOP

 


 

Listening Link 

 

This morning herring gulls sound in the distance, and the sky is clouded. The air is gently cold, not biting, and carries a hint of woodiness.

 

Alt text says this week’s photo is two women standing together smiling. I like that description. And I love this photo and that I was able to say hello in real life to Tanita Tikaram after the excellent concert at Stoller Hall. I enjoyed it all – it made my heart sing. And I felt my soul shining extra brightly on hearing such a beautiful performance of ‘Valentine Heart’ from Tanita Tikaram and Helen O’Hara.

 

I had been enjoying the anticipation of going to the concert for quite some time having safely stored the tickets away when I bought them back in May. On the actual day of the event, I had factored in the journey and made peanut butter and blackcurrant jam rolls for tea so that when we got there we didn’t have to worry about finding somewhere to eat. What I couldn’t factor in was the impact of the weather on the journey time. Our one-hour journey became a two-and-a-half-hour trek so even with my tendency of needing to be early in order to feel punctual the timing didn’t quite work as anticipated. Earlier that day I had listened to a message on LinkedIn which posed the question ‘What would you do if you were not afraid?’ I love this kind of question! And on this occasion, it helped me not to feel strange about arriving when the support act had already started. Instead I leant into the thought of it being better to be a late audience member than to leave our seats empty for this part of the show.

 

For me there is a poetry to the lyrics of Tanita Tikram’s songs which I love. Reflecting on this reminded me that many, many years ago I wrote my mum a letter composed almost entirely of lines from songs on Ancient Heart and The Sweet Keeper. I can remember walking to the post box outside college to post it and I can also remember her telling me she was rather bemused when she received it.

 

So this week I found myself transported back in time to the late eighties and early nineties, and it was fun to look back on the me that listened to the songs then and the me that sat in the front row for a concert more than three decades later. When I hear myself recounting the concert experience the feeling is the same... my heart sings, my soul shines...it’s still like setting off a metal spinning top, and it’s just as shiny as back then, but as I watch it now, I see it glows at the edges with a vintage vibe.

For this week’s poem I select Watching the Rambert at the Marlowe which was published in ‘The Broken Spine’. This poem was written about a dance performance I went to in the early 1990s, so it fits well with the timeframe I have been looking back on.

Here’s to all the things that make our hearts sing and souls shine.

WATCHING THE RAMBERT AT THE MARLOWE

After ‘Rooster’, The Marlowe Theatre, Date Unknown

 

I’m not in a velour seat next to you.

 

Because right now

you are tight muscled,

assured in your seduction,

all strut and shapes

and I am the woman you dance towards.

 

I’m not caught by the breaths of every move.

 

I am breathless with desire

feeling the pulse

in every cell.

I know what it is to be alive.

 

I’m not just watching

droplets of sweat fly and fall.

 

I am the dancer in the red dress

spinning in and out of lives.

 



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