norholmen (2017) by Carol J Jones

written as part of the St Magnus International Festival Composer Academy

'norholmen' is a response to local poet Fiona Sanderson and is inspired by local folk music. It captures the ghostly nature of lost souls at sea from a historic shipwreck.

The bell rang out but it was no bell
It was the sound of a stave, a staving in of the metal sides
Light splintering in where it didn’t ought to be
And water, water, everywhere.

There was no bell to ring,
no deck but an upward ladder of caulked planks
that couldn’t be walked.
The world was sideways, circled about with different rules

Then, nothing at all, no sound no land
As we lifted high then plunged the last long drop,
Stopped. There was an echo in my ears
Clearer than the waves themselves.

Vessels, the lot of us, all subject to wreck;
Containers of sounds that we let fly
As we leap, make for shore.
Some land. Others float out to sea.

© Carol J Jones 2021