The Listening Post

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"The Listening Post" was commissioned by 14-18 NOW: World War One centenerary art commissions[video width="960" height="766" mp4="https://blog.lemnsissay.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Somme.mp4"][/video]and performed at the National Commemoration of the Centenerary of the Battle of the Somme in Heaton Park on July 1st 2016 at 9.45pm. Here are video recordings, audio recordings and the written poem.The Listening Post The past messages of the first bornThe last words of the frontThe first waves of spring tidesWhere night bathes the sunThe words of letters unwrittenThe tongue tied and unreadThe hymns of the un-congregatedThe unheard song unsaidTears weighed down for 100 yearsRise up from fallen eyesHear. The swallows are returningThe crops are lifting the skyHere comes the blood dread sunShe climbs the edge of plightAll light has the power to stunAll darkness stilled in the nightShadows slant and stretchSeeds split beneath earthRoots of light seek the eyeThe opening iris at birthHere is the child bornThe harvest in bloomHands hold her to lightTo dawn and the falling moonLight paves the wayNight waves revealThe breaking new dayAbove dew soaked fieldsWe cannot be defined by warNot by fields sown with sorrowNot by the death that befell youBut by the peace that followedLook what has risen from the fallenAbove long shadows castThe light shines from open mindsThe torch held in our pastIf you could hear at the listening postOne hundred years aheadAnd be, as you are, the missing hostWhere light and darkness wed…Look what was sown by the starsAt night across the fieldsWe are not defined by scarsBut by the incredible ability to healHere are the past messages of the first bornThe lost words of the frontThe first waves of spring tidesWhere night bathes in sunHere is the poem filmed a day earlier in a studio in Lancashire by Huckleberry films and then broadcast on BBC North West Tonight on July 1st.And here it is live at Heaton Park..  Two verses were recorded on Breakfast Television at 8.40am. Three people I would like to thank: Maria Balshaw, Alan Lane and Sir Mark Elder."The Listening Post" will be in  Gold From The Stone . I can't tell you how sad it is that the only people to edit my poem are North West Tonight. They took out four whole verses. It was good enough for the government. Good enough for ten thousand people and to end the some celebrations.I am posting this blog from The  Malmaison in Piccadilly.  They  framed "The Listening Post" and placed it on the Reception desk.