The
Sap Rises
inspired people in various ways. Jill gave us the start of Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales
in Modern and Middle English – a hymn to April – and followed it
with an Irish song. Suzanne [a rare but welcome visitor] told a
Japanese story in which, after much persecution by a nasty neighbour,
an old couple's good fortune eventually manifests itself in the power
to make trees blossom. [There are many versions of the story; the
earliest one in English is here,
with illustrations, and a later retelling is here.]
Paul
[also rare and welcome] gave us a highly amusing picture of a
post-apocalyptic Cotswold village as the frame for a duck-story.
Graham [rare and welcome] gave us the meat of Swan
Lake
[with an obligatory East End ostler to meet the social representation
quota for fairy-tales] in a sandwich of the Big Tune from Tchaikovsky
played by Graham himself on the guitar – and his account of the
story itself matched its plangent melancholy. Taprisha [rare,
welcome] closed the first half with an account of how Angus Óg
was summoned from Ireland to improve Scottish weather.
Mike
filled the second half with his own story In the
Copse,
set in a world where Trees and Humans mingle, and you can read a
version of it here.
With
all these visitors, Maddy, Laura and Jill kept their stories to
themselves – but next time...
Suzanne's story had the highest sap factor and drew approving aaahs. Mike's story was rooted in the landscape. I hope you're going to take it out to festivals this summer, Mike , as its consideration of the practice of coppicing increases our understanding and appreciation of the coutryside. Many thanks for posting the story in full on this blog
ReplyDelete