On A Leap in the Dark last Friday a group of readers, lead by Michael Hughes, gathered together to perform all 24 cantos of Spring Journal, the poem by Jonathan Gibbs,the latest canto of which has featured every Friday since early April.
We took the unusual step of recording the programme for a hypothetical archive, because this was a literary moment of great significance. Below are the comments posted by Jonathan and members of the audience, which I suppose represent the first critical responses to the completed poem. They will give you some idea of the mounting intensity of response as the evening went on. But you had to be there. Nobody who took part is ever likely to forget the evening we spent together - it was intense, dark, moving, inspiring and profound. The transcription below is a record of how the readings made an impact on the audience. From a 'cold start' it's an extraordinary thing to see how quickly the hooks go in and how intense the audience responses are.
My thanks - wholly inadequate but heartfelt - to all the marvellous readers: Kevin Boniface, Marie-Elsa Bragg, Season Butler, Susanna Crossman, Kevin Davey, Emma Devlin, Rónán Hession, Amy McCauley, J O Morgan, Helen Ottaway, Aea Varfis-van Warmelo and Eley Williams. And of course to Michael Hughes - the voice of Spring Journal over the months, and who read the lion's share of cantos on the night - and Jonathan Gibbs, without whom it would have been a lesser Leap, and short on content. He insists he's not a poet. He is wrong.
Here's the transcript:
From Me to Everyone: (8:02 pm)
Welcome to a Leap in the Dark. Thank you for your support. This will be a night to remember!
From Paulette Jonguitud to Everyone: (8:03 pm)
Full house tonight!
[Sudden weird reverb noise prompted the following comments]
From Chris Cusack to Everyone: (8:03 pm)
I'm digging this jam
From omardell to Everyone: (8:03 pm)
IT'S IN THE COMPUTER!!!!
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (8:03 pm)
we can all just go home that was amazing
From C.D. Rose to Everyone: (8:03 pm)
I own records that sound like this.
From bardsley to Everyone: (8:03 pm)
love that dancing Ronan
From Laura hopkins to Everyone: (8:03 pm)
And Jonathan, and Helen and Melanie.
From Tim MacGabhann to Everyone: (8:03 pm)
i thought that thumping was the overture
From Linda Quinn to Everyone: (8:04 pm)
i'm getting a loud echo - so it's hard to hear what's being said
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:09 pm)
Spring Journal notes for chat sidebar
‘Autumn Journal’ was written by Anglo-Irish poet Louis MacNeice between August 1938 and early 1939 and mixes his take on the growing anxiety over the Spanish Civil War and the Munich Agreement with more personal reflections. It was published to great acclaim in Spring 1939 by Faber and Faber.
‘Autumn Journal’ is written in 24 cantos of about 80 lines each, sometimes running longer. In the interests of keeping the evening a manageable length I’ve trimmed a few lines (4-12) from most cantos of my poem.
In MacNeice’s words (in a letter to TS Eliot), ‘Autumn Journal’ “contains rapportage [sic], metaphysics, ethics, lyrical emotion, autobiography, nightmare, balanced by pictures. Places presented include Hampshire, Spain, Birmingham, Ireland, &—especially—London..
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:09 pm)
“It is written throughout in an elastic kind of quatrain. This form (a) gives the whole poem a formal unity but (b) saves it from monotony by allowing it a great range of appropriate variations. The writing is direct; anyone could understand it […] It is both a panorama and a confession of faith.”
I started writing ‘Spring Journal’ on Twitter on 19th March, and Michael read the first two cantos on A Leap in the Dark on 4th April. Since then I’ve written and he’s read a canto a week, ending tonight.
MacNeice’s rhyme scheme: For most of the poem he writes alternate cantos in ABCB and ABAC quatrains, but he gets ambitious, or bored, halfway through, and starts throwing in cantos using ABCA and ABBC, and a mix of all four styles. I’ve tried to follow him.
Piano Introduction composed and played by Helen Ottaway, followed by
From Jonathan Erskine to Everyone: (8:10 pm)
I have my father with me. He revealed this evening that he bought an edition of the autumn cantos in Czechoslovakia in 1957. It's sitting on the bookshelves here.
From Katie Clammer to Everyone: (8:11 pm)
So soothing and beautiful. Thank you Helen :)
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:11 pm)
Canto I
Written 19 March to early April
Read by Michael Hughes
MacNeice’s canto begins...
Close and slow, summer is ending in Hampshire,
Ebbing away down ramps of shaven lawn where close- clipped yew
Insulates the lives of retired generals and admirals
And the spyglasses hung in the hall and the prayer-books ready in the pew
News headlines:
18 March: Government announces most schools across England will shut from Friday
20 March: All pubs, restaurants, gyms and other social venues across the country told to shut
23 March: Prime Minister’s uses televised address to announce lockdown starting on 26 March.
26 March: The first ‘clap for carers’ on doorsteps at 8pm.
From Niamh MacCabe to Everyone: (8:12 pm)
What an intro Helen, thank you
From bardsley to Everyone: (8:12 pm)
that was stunning Helen. merci.
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:19 pm)
Canto II
Written 23 March to early April
Read by Kevin Boniface
MacNeice’s canto begins...
Spider, spider, twisting tight —
But the watch is wary beneath the pillow —
I am afraid in the web of night
When the window is fingered by the shadows of branches…
(For Louis, the spider, for me the bees…)
News headlines:
27 March: Johnson tests positive for Covid-19.
28 March: Official UK death toll passes 1,000.
31 March: 10,000 people in hospital with Covid-19.
BIT LATE with that one, sorry!
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:20 pm)
Canto III
Written 30 March to 2 April
Read by Michael Hughes
MacNeice’s canto begins...
August is nearly over, the people
Back from holiday are tanned
With blistered thumbs and a wallet of snaps and a little
Joie de vivre which is contraband…
News headlines:
2 April: Matt Hancock sets a target of carrying out 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month
3 April: First Nightingale hospital opens in ExCel centre in East London
UK road traffic levels have fallen by 73% since the lockdown
From Katie Clammer to Everyone: (8:20 pm)
Wow True social distance! That's brilliant!!!
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:24 pm)
Canto IV
Written 3 to 7 April
Read by Jonathan Gibbs
MacNeice’s canto begins...
September has come and I wake
And I think with joy how whatever, now or in future, the system
Nothing whatever can take
The people away, there will always be people…
But most famous for being a love-letter and reckoning of the end of his two-year affair with Nancy Coldstream.
September has come, it is hers
Whose vitality leaps in the autumn…
And the wonderful, simple line
So I am glad
Which is also the title of a novel by AL Kennedy that I need to reread…
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:27 pm)
News headlines:
4 April: Keir Starmer elected Labour leader.
5 April: Queen addresses the nation.
Johnson admitted to hospital.
6 April: Official UK death toll passes 5,000.
Johnson in intensive care.
***
Piano interlude I composed and played by Helen Ottaway, followed by
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:28 pm)
Canto V
Written Written 15 - 18 April
Read by Michael Hughes
MacNeice’s canto begins...
To-day was a beautiful day, the sky was a brilliant
Blue for the first time for weeks and weeks
But posters flapping on the railings tell the fluttered
World that Hitler speaks, that Hitler speaks…
From Laura hopkins to Everyone: (8:28 pm)
Beautiful Helen
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:28 pm)
Other great lines:
And now the woodpigeon starts again denying
The values of the town
And a car having crossed the hill accelerates, changes
Up, having just changed down.
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:28 pm)
News headlines:
11 April: NHS workers say they still do not have the correct personal protective equipment to treat patients
12 April: Johnson discharged from hospital.
UK death toll in hospital passes 10,000.
14 April: More attacks on mobile phone masts.
16 April: 99-year-old War veteran Tom Moore completes 100 laps of his garden to raise money for the NHS.
18 April: A shipment of PPE to come from Turkey is announced. (It was delayed, and unusable.)
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick says the virus appears to be having a "disproportionate impact" on the Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (8:29 pm)
Jonathan, that one was gorgeous, thank you.
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:29 pm)
thank you!
From Ronan Hession to Everyone: (8:29 pm)
Canto 4. My favourite. Beautiful for so many reasons, all the way from anger to love.
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (8:30 pm)
I think it's the first one I heard, and I've never forgotten it
From bardsley to Everyone: (8:30 pm)
it was so moving.
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (8:30 pm)
very much so
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:32 pm)
Canto VI
Written 18 - 23 April
Read by Marie-Elsa Bragg
MacNeice’s canto begins...
And I remember Spain
At Easter ripe as an egg for revolt and ruin
Though for a tripper the rain
Was worse than the surly or the worried or the haunted faces
And is a report of his trip to Spain in 1936 with Anthony Blunt.
News headlines:
20 April: Online applications for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme are opened, with 67,000 claims registered in the first 30 minutes
21 April: Parliament reconvenes after the Easter recess with MPs approving a new arrangement with some in the House of Commons chamber and some attending via video link.
21 April: Sir Simon McDonald retracts briefing on ministers’ ‘political’ decision on ordering medical equipment from EU.
From Deirdre to Everyone: (8:33 pm)
love the way you integrated and turned around the Larkin poem The Trees - subtlely done
From eley w to Everyone: (8:33 pm)
'for there's always more / Sand'
From eley w to Everyone: (8:34 pm)
</3
From Ronan Hession to Everyone: (8:35 pm)
Hearing the Cantos in sequence I'm really starting to appreciate the rich variety of ideas
From bardsley to Everyone: (8:35 pm)
the multi-voice reading adds so much depth
like a greek chorus
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:36 pm)
wow, wonderful reading Marie-Elsa!
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:37 pm)
Canto VII
Written 27 - 30 April
Read by Michael Hughes
MacNeice’s canto begins...
Conferences, adjournments, ultimatums,
Flights in the air, castles in the air,
The autopsy of treaties, dynamite under the bridges,
The end of laissez faire.
From Paula Kavanagh to Everyone: (8:37 pm)
That was wonderful
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:37 pm)
Other great lines:
And I hear dull blows on wood outside my window;
They are cutting down the trees on Primrose Hill.
The wood is white like the roast flesh of chicken,
Each tree falling like a closing fan;
No more looking at the view from seats beneath the branches,
Everything is going to plan;
They want the crest of this hill for anti-aircraft,
The guns will take the view
And searchlights probe the heavens for bacilli
With narrow wands of blue.
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:37 pm)
News headlines:
24 April: Website for key workers to book a coronavirus test temporarily closes after high demand
25 April: Official death toll passes 20,000.
28 April: ONS report indicates a third of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales are occurring in care homes.
Testing capacity reaches 73,000 per day, although only 43,000 were carried out the previous day.
From Laura hopkins to Everyone: (8:37 pm)
lovely lovely Marie-Elsa
From Gav Clarke to Everyone: (8:37 pm)
Beautifully done Marie-Elsa
From samskoog to Everyone: (8:37 pm)
You have a beautiful reading voice Marie-Elsa
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:40 pm)
Canto VIII
Written 3 – 7 May
Read by Season Butler
MacNeice’s canto begins...
Sun shines easy, sun shines gay
On bug-house, warehouse, brewery, market,
On the chocolate factory and the B.S.A.,
On the Greek town hall and Josiah Mason;
On the Mitchells and Butlers Tudor pubs,
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:41 pm)
And is in part a memory of MacNeice’s time teaching Classics at a school in Birmingham
But Life was comfortable, life was fine
With two in a bed and patchwork cushions
And checks and tassels on the washing-line,
A gramophone, a cat, and the smell of jasmine.
The steaks were tender, the films were fun,
The walls were striped like a Russian ballet,
From bardsley to Everyone: (8:41 pm)
oh wow i remember hearing that one.
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:41 pm)
News headlines:
1 May: Matt Hancock confirms the government's target of providing 100,000 tests a day by the end of April has been met, though this counted those sent out, not processed, which would have been a far lower number.
3 May: NHS contact tracing app to be trialled on the Isle of Wight during the forthcoming week
5 May: UK official death toll (29427) now highest in Europe.
Virgin Atlantic make more than 3,000 redundancies and ends operations at Gatwick Airport
From Lynn Buckle to Everyone: (8:42 pm)
I am considering the technical difficulty of writing and reciting this in real time, a work in parts and unfinished until now - no possibility of going back and editing or chopping or moving parts around. some achievement!
From Gav Clarke to Everyone: (8:45 pm)
most Goddardian framing there (refers I think to Aea’s recording - DC)
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:45 pm)
Piano interlude II composed and played by Helen Ottaway, followed by…
From C.D. Rose to Everyone: (8:45 pm)
thank you Season!
From Ronan Hession to Everyone: (8:45 pm)
Beautiful reading Season
From Laura hopkins to Everyone: (8:45 pm)
Beautiful reading Season
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:45 pm)
Thank you Season!
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (8:46 pm)
wonderful reading season
From bardsley to Everyone: (8:46 pm)
beautiful Season.
From samskoog to Everyone: (8:46 pm)
Really fantastic.
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:47 pm)
Canto IX
Written 9 - 15 May
Read by Michael Hughes
MacNeice’s canto begins...
Well, you’ll hear how it starts…
Again, MacNeice considers the lasting meaning of Ancient Greece:
And when I should remember the paragons of Hellas
I think instead
Of the crooks, the adventurers, the opportunists,
The careless athletes and the fancy boys,
The hair-splitters, the pedants, the hard-boiled sceptics
And the Agora and the noise…
From Steph to Everyone: (8:50 pm)
Naming of parts...
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:50 pm)
Good spot! The drill sergeant is parodying Henry Reed’s poem Naming of Parts, which is dedicated to my grandfather…)
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:50 pm)
More lines from MacNeice’s canto
I think of the slaves.
And how one can imagine oneself among them
I do not know;
It was all so unimaginably different
And all so long ago.
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:51 pm)
Canto X
Written 17 - 21 May
Read by Kevin Davey
MacNeice’s canto begins...
And so return to work — the M.A. gown,
Alphas and Betas, central heating, floor-polish,
Demosthenes on the Crown
And Oedipus at Colonus.
And I think of the beginnings of other terms
Coming across the sea to unknown England
And memory reaffirms
That alarm and exhilaration of arrival…
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:51 pm)
And is mostly made up of memories of his own childhood and schooling in England
News headlines:
18 May: UK adds loss of smell and loss of taste to the list of COVID-19 symptoms that people should look out for
20 May: Boris Johnson confirms that a track and trace system will be in place from 1 June.
21 May: Government announces that NHS staff and care workers from overseas will be exempt from the immigration health surcharge that usually applies to non-EU migrants
From Tim MacGabhann to Everyone: (8:55 pm)
‘A tally as vast and arbitrary as our 25,000 genes,
Each one waiting for its cup of tea and madeleine’ is truly sensational
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:57 pm)
Thank you Kevin! So good
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:57 pm)
Canto XI
Written 25 - 29 May
Read by Susanna Crossman
From Ronan hession to Everyone: (8:57 pm)
great job Kevin
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:57 pm)
MacNeice’s canto begins...
But work is alien; what do I care for the Master
Of those who know, of those who know too much?
I am too harassed by my familiar devils,
By those I cannot see, by those I may not touch…
But in fact I pretty much ignored MacNeice for this canto, and turned instead to Dante…
From Paula Kavanagh to Everyone: (8:57 pm)
Beautiful interpretation
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (8:57 pm)
News headlines:
23 May: Dominic Cummings comes under pressure to resign after it is revealed he travelled 260 miles from London to Durham to self-isolate during lockdown.
25 May: Cummings press conference in Downing Street Rose Garden.
George Floyd murdered in Minneapolis and protests begin.
28 May: Contact tracing systems go live in England and Scotland but Dido Harding tells MPs the system in England will not be fully operational at a local level until the end of June
29 May: Derek Chauvin charged with third degree murder of George Floyd.
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:02 pm)
After this canto please unmute and applaud the readers and performers!
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (9:03 pm)
I won't lie, I got a bit emotional fellas.
From bardsley to Everyone: (9:03 pm)
me too
From Helen Ottaway to Everyone: (9:03 pm)
everythings gone dark
From samskoog to Everyone: (9:03 pm)
Im sure were very happy to thank you too Jonathan haha
From Kate Armstrong’s iPhone to Everyone: (9:04 pm)
this is utterly glorious. I feel as though I’m witnessing a cultural moment which we’ll talk about for years.
From Linda to Everyone: (9:04 pm)
That was absolutely stunning - thank you:-)
From Ruby Cowling to Everyone: (9:05 pm)
As a newcomer to this work, I just want to state that my mind is blown. Jonathan, you're incredible. Performers, you're amazing. I agree with you, Kate Armstrong, we're witnessing a very important piece of work being performed here.
From Ronan Hession to Everyone: (9:06 pm)
Quite emotional listening to this.
From bardsley to Everyone: (9:06 pm)
i agree Ronan, I keep wanting to reach for the tissues.
From Ruby Cowling to Everyone: (9:08 pm)
Yes, exactly
From eley w to Everyone: (9:08 pm)
same
From FionaMacleod to Everyone: (9:08 pm)
Wonderful. Powerful. A testament to moments already forgotten/supressed
From Jonathan Erskine to Everyone: (9:09 pm)
Agree, everyone. I feel privileged to be here.
From Paulette Jonguitud to Everyone: (9:10 pm)
And Helen’s music just brings the whole performance to another level.
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:15 pm)
Musical piece: ‘Song for Spring Journal’ - a collaboration between Helen Ottaway (piano) and Melanie Pappenheim (voice), followed by:
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:15 pm)
Canto XII
Written 2 -5 June
Read by Michael Hughes
MacNeice’s canto begins...
These days are misty, insulated, mute
Like a faded tapestry and the soft pedal
Is down and the yellow leaves are falling down
And we hardly have the heart to meddle
Any more with personal ethics or public calls…
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:16 pm)
And is in part a reckoning of the poet’s own cushy bourgeois life…
But here global events started to dislodge covid from even the front pages.
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:16 pm)
News headlines:
30 May: Black Lives Matter protests spread to New York, Atlanta, Washington DC. Curfews imposed.
31 May: Tens of thousands of Americans protest across the country.
1 June: Car and caravan showrooms, outdoor sports amenities and outdoor non-food markets may reopen. Gatherings of people from more than one household are limited to six people outdoors and are prohibited entirely indoors
2 June: The Guardian has calculated the UK death toll from COVID-19 is 50,032, 10,000 more than the official death toll.
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:19 pm)
Canto XIII
Written 8 - 11 June
Read by Aea Varfis-van Warmelo
MacNeice’s canto begins...
Which things being so, as we said when we studied
The classics, I ought to be glad
That I studied the classics at Marlborough and Merton,
Not everyone here having had
The privilege of learning a language
That is incontrovertibly dead,
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:24 pm)
Read in fact by Aea Varfis-van Warmelo with spectral help from Samuel Skoog.
From Ronan hession to Everyone: (9:24 pm)
Wow
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (9:24 pm)
Magnificent, Aea
From eley w to Everyone: (9:24 pm)
yowzer
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:24 pm)
Canto XIV
Written 15 - 18 June
Read by Michael Hughes
MacNeice’s canto begins...
The next day I drove by night
Among red and amber and green, spears and candles,
Corkscrews and slivers of reflected light
In the mirror of the rainy asphalt
Along the North Circular and the Great West roads
Running the gauntlet of impoverished fancy
Where housewives bolster up their jerry-built abodes
With amour propre and the habit of Hire Purchase.
From C.D. Rose to Everyone: (9:24 pm)
excellent, thank you Aea
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:24 pm)
Yes indeed, Wow
From Gav Clarke to Everyone: (9:24 pm)
Marvellous performance and upsetting, infuriating….
From Christodoulos Makris to Everyone: (9:24 pm)
Wow
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:24 pm)
News headlines:
15 June: Shops can reopen, but not restaurants, bars, pubs, nightclubs, most cinemas, theatres, museums, hairdressers, indoor sports and leisure facilities
Boris Johnson announces a government commission on racism and ethnic disparities in education, health and criminal justice
Artist Mark Quinn erects statue of Black Lives Matter protestor Jen Reid on Colston’s former plinth in Bristol. It is taken down by the council the next day.
18 June: Bank of England announces plans to inject an extra £100bn into the UK economy to help fight downturn
UK delays the launch of the contact tracing app.
From Kate Armstrong’s iPhone to Everyone: (9:24 pm)
possibly my favourite of all, and what a performance.
From Laura hopkins to Me: (Privately) (9:25 pm)
Aea you blaze
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:28 pm)
Canto XV
Written 20 - 25 June
Read by Amy McCauley as Malady Nelson
MacNeice’s canto – one of the most famous in the poem – begins...
Shelley and jazz and lieder and love and hymn-tunes
And day returns too soon;
We’ll get drunk among the roses
In the valley of the moon.
Give me an aphrodisiac, give me lotus,
Give me the same again;
Make all the erotic poets of Rome and Ionia
And Florence and Provence and Spain
Pay a tithe of their sugar to my potion
From Ruby Cowling to Everyone: (9:32 pm)
Wow - perfect
From Christodoulos Makris to Everyone: (9:32 pm)
Malady!!
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:32 pm)
News headlines:
19 June: UK's COVID-19 Alert Level is lowered from Level 4 to Level 3
24 June: British Medical Journal publishes open letter calling on government to launch a review into whether the UK is prepared for what they describe as the "real risk" of a second wave of COVID-19
25 June: Heatwave. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council declares a major incident after as many as half a million people travel to the Dorset coast.
From samskoog to Everyone: (9:32 pm)
Possibly my favourite canto. Also possibly one Malady Nelson's finest hours.
From Paulette Jonguitud to Everyone: (9:32 pm)
Wow. Amy!
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:32 pm)
Canto XVI
Written 29 June – 3 July
Read by Michael Hughes
MacNeice’s canto begins...
Nightmare leaves fatigue:
We envy men of action
Who sleep and wake, murder and intrigue
Without being doubtful, without being haunted.
And is a long agonised account of his own Anglo-Irish identity.
From bardsley to Everyone: (9:32 pm)
amy that was amazing/
From eley w to Everyone: (9:32 pm)
wonderful
From Paula Kavanagh to Everyone: (9:32 pm)
that was extraordinary
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:33 pm)
News headlines:
29 June: Local lockdown imposed in Leicester
1 July: 12,000 job losses announced in the retail and aviation industry in just days
From Ronan Hession to Everyone: (9:33 pm)
Amy, that was so very beautifully sad
From Marie-Elsa Bragg to Everyone: (9:33 pm)
My god Amy, you broke my heart
From Gav Clarke to Everyone: (9:33 pm)
melancholy malady, so fine
From Laura hopkins to Everyone: (9:34 pm)
Amy you made David weep
From Laura hopkins to Everyone: (9:34 pm)
And me too, inside
From Roland Bates to Everyone: (9:35 pm)
sophisticated simple. Gone!
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:37 pm)
Canto XVII
Written 6 – 10 July
Read by Emma Devlin
MacNeice’s canto begins...
From the second floor up, looking north, having breakfast
I see the November sun at nine o’clock
Gild the fusty brickwork of rows on rows of houses
Like animals asleep and breathing smoke
And considers his philosophical studies at university
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:37 pm)
News headlines:
4 July: Lockdown eased in England.
6 July: government announces grants and loans of £1.57bn to support theatres, galleries, museums and other cultural venues
7 July: ONS statistics show only a fifth of people testing positive for COVID-19 had symptoms on the day they were tested
10 July: Quarantine rules relaxed for people arriving into UK from 75 countries.
Mask-wearing made compulsory in shops in Scotland.
From Laura hopkins to Everyone: (9:40 pm)
lovely Emma
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:40 pm)
Canto XVIII
Written 13 – 16 July
Read by Michael Hughes
MacNeice’s canto begins...
In the days that were early the music came easy
On cradle and coffin, in the corn and the barn,
Songs for the reaping and spinning and only the shepherd
Then as now was silent beside the tarn:
And takes in politics, Ireland and philosophy, but I mostly ran with the theme of music.
From Chris Cusack to Everyone: (9:41 pm)
Fantastic stuff all
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:41 pm)
News headlines:
13 July: nail bars, spas and beauty salons, massage and tattoo parlours can re-open.
14 July: Report commissioned by UK’s chief scientific adviser forecasts between 24,500 and 251,000 hospital deaths if UK is a hit by a second wave of infections, with a peak in January and February 2021.
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:41 pm)
Thanks Emma - great canto!
From Ronan Hession to Everyone: (9:41 pm)
Lovely reading Emma
From Ruby Cowling to Everyone: (9:43 pm)
Bravo
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:44 pm)
Piano interlude III composed and played by Helen Ottaway, followed by
From Laura Hopkins to Everyone: (9:45 pm)
Jonathan it’s huge and so powerful
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:46 pm)
Canto XIX
Written 17 – 23 July
Read by Michael Hughes
MacNeice’s canto begins...
The pigeons riddle the London air,
The shutter slides from the chain-store window,
The frock-coat statue stands in the square
Caring for no one, caring for no one.
(the line ‘O what a busy morning’ is MacNeice’s as well.)
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:46 pm)
And he does some more thinking about lost love…
When we are out of love, how were we ever in it?
But freedom is not so exciting,
We prefer to be drawn
In the rush of the stars as they circle —
A traffic that ends with dawn.
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:46 pm)
News headlines:
17 July Boris Johnson announces a further easing of lockdown restrictions for England, with plans for a "significant return to normality" by Christmas
Captain Sir Tom Moore is knighted by the Queen
Princess Beatrice marries Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi at Windsor Castle
21 July Rishi Sunak announces that 900,000 public sector workers, including doctors and teachers – but not nurses or junior doctors – will get an above-inflation pay rise of 3.1%.
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:50 pm)
Canto XX
Written 28 – 30 July
Read by Eley Williams
MacNeice’s canto begins...
Nelson stands on a black pillar,
The electric signs go off and on —
Distilleries and life insurance companies —
The traffic circles, coming and gone,
Past the National Gallery closed and silent
Where in their frames
Other worlds persist, the passions of the artist
Caught like frozen flames:
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:50 pm)
Not that much crossover in this canto, but I tried to respond to MacNeice’s writing about art and artists in my own way…
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:51 pm)
News headlines:
24 July: Mask-wearing made compulsory in shops in England.
Boris Johnson says in BBC interview that the UK government did not understand the nature of coronavirus at the beginning of the pandemic, and could have done things differently.
25 July: Government announces travellers to UK from Spain will have to quarantine for 14 days, from tomorrow.
30 July: ONS figures show England had the highest number of excess deaths in Europe between the end of February and mid-June
From Ruby Cowling to Everyone: (9:52 pm)
Oh Eley
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:54 pm)
Canto XXI
Written 1 – 7 August
Read by JO Morgan
MacNeice’s canto begins...
And when we clear away
All this debris of day-by-day experience,
What comes out to light, what is there of value
Lasting from day to day?
(I was reading Henry Miller’s memoir/travel book The Colossus of Maroussi on holiday)
News headlines:
3 August: The month-long "Eat Out to Help Out" scheme begins
4 August: Scientists warn that test and trace provisions are inadequate to prevent a second wave of COVID-19 once schools reopen in September
Photographs by Kevin Boniface (most landscape photos) and Susanna Crossman (square format photos) plus Eley Williams (RATS RATS, and park path stencil) and Sarah Helps (rock formations and sea)
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:59 pm)
Canto XXII
Written 8 – 14 August
Read by Michael Hughes
MacNeice’s canto begins...
December the nineteenth: over the black roofs
And the one black paint-brush poplar
The white steam rises and deploys in puffs
From the house-hidden railway, a northern
Geyser erupting in a land of lava,
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (9:59 pm)
News headlines:
11 August: Scottish Government announces upgrades for thousands of Higher exam results that were marked down from teachers’ assessements.
13 August: A Level grades are published for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. School and college leaders call for an urgent review after 36% of results in England are lower than teachers predicted.
15 August: Ofqual publishes guidelines on the criteria constituting grounds for a review of results, then withdraws the advice
17 August: Government u-turn so that both A Level and GCSE results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be based on teachers' assessments.
From Laura Hopkins to Everyone: (10:01 pm)
Eley your commitment was very moving
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (10:03 pm)
Canto XXIII
Written 18 – 21 August
Read by Rónán Hession
MacNeice’s canto begins...
The road ran downhill into Spain,
The wind blew fresh on bamboo grasses,
The white plane-trees were bone-naked
And the issues plain:
And considers another trip by MacNeice to Spain late in 1938, shortly before the fall of Barcelona.
From Kate Armstrong’s iPhone to Everyone: (10:04 pm)
Anyone else desperately not want this to end? I can feel the clock winding down.
From Laura Hopkins to Everyone: (10:05 pm)
Yes same
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (10:05 pm)
same kate, don
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (10:05 pm)
don't want this to be over
From bardsley to Everyone: (10:06 pm)
same.
From Helen Ottaway to Everyone: (10:07 pm)
yes ditto
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (10:08 pm)
Canto XXIV
Written 22 – 28 August
Read by Michael Hughes
MacNeice’s canto begins...
Sleep, my body, sleep, my ghost,
Sleep, my parents and grand-parents,
And all those I have loved most:
One man’s coffin is another’s cradle.
And is a summing up of the poem and a lullaby (‘cradle song’)
From Ruby Cowling to Everyone: (10:08 pm)
"We can keep this thing turning"
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (10:08 pm)
It ends with the lines
The New Year comes with bombs, it is too late
To dose the dead with honourable intentions:
If you have honour to spare, employ it on the living;
The dead are dead as 1938.
Sleep to the noise of running water
To-morrow to be crossed, however deep;
This is no river of the dead or Lethe,
To-night we sleep
On the banks of Rubicon — the die is cast;
There will be time to audit
The accounts later, there will be sunlight later
And the equation will come out at last.
From Me to Everyone: (10:08 pm)
Ronan that was so delicate and thoughtful
From Roland Bates to Everyone: (10:12 pm)
Fantastic. Perfect finish
From eley w to Everyone: (10:12 pm)
marvellous
From Laura Hopkins to Everyone: (10:13 pm)
Bravo MIchael
From Frances Ottaway to Everyone: (10:13 pm)
Thank you so much to everyone for an inspiring evening. What lovely words and music. Will it be published at all - I’d love to be able to buy a copy…..
From FionaMacleod to Everyone: (10:13 pm)
Wonderful
From Jonathan Erskine to Everyone: (10:14 pm)
Just astounding.
From Paulette Jonguitud to Everyone: (10:14 pm)
That was quite a journey. Thank you all.
From Ronan Hession to Everyone: (10:14 pm)
Jonathan - a great work of art. Supremely yours and supremely ours
From Jonathan Erskine to Everyone: (10:14 pm)
astounding, even.
From Helen Ottaway to Everyone: (10:14 pm)
just amazing and wonderful - Leap leap
From Kate Armstrong’s iPhone to Everyone: (10:14 pm)
Cripes. Thank you so much everyone.
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (10:14 pm)
I am going to feel quite alone now that it's over
From Deirdre to Everyone: (10:14 pm)
tremendous version of the poem - and wonderful readings / performances - loved the piano and the singing - what an evening - thank you all
From Ruby Cowling to Everyone: (10:14 pm)
Jonathan, everyone, that was devastating
From Season Butler to Everyone: (10:14 pm)
Such a lovely evening. Thank you everyone
From Kevin Boniface to Everyone: (10:15 pm)
Incredible work
From Graeme Stonehouse to Everyone: (10:15 pm)
SPECTACULARLY BEAUTIFUL! Thank you Jonathan, Thank you Michael, Thank you Helen & Melanie and thank you everyone who read!
From eley w to Everyone: (10:15 pm)
thank you everyone
From Kate Armstrong’s iPhone to Everyone: (10:15 pm)
And thank you to David for providing the forum
From Gav Clarke to Everyone: (10:15 pm)
magnificent Michael, thanks…. gives such deep, moving expression to what Is already thoughtful, sustained , beautiful experiment . Well done Jonathan
From Katie Clammer to Everyone: (10:15 pm)
Totally amazing - thanks to everyone who performed. What a treat tonight has been :)
From C.D. Rose to Everyone: (10:16 pm)
excellent work Jonathan, and the company. Many thanks.
From Ronan Hession to Everyone: (10:16 pm)
Bravo Michael especially!
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (10:16 pm)
Take a bow Hughes
From Christodoulos Makris to Everyone: (10:16 pm)
Amazing Jonathan, and all performers!
From Laura Hopkins to Everyone: (10:17 pm)
Yes Michael you have been extraordinary to listen to over the last few months
From samskoog to Everyone: (10:17 pm)
To be fair, the evening has run remarkably smoothly. Zoom is obviously appreciative of the work that went in.
From Jonathan Erskine to Everyone: (10:17 pm)
Simply wonderful, thank you so much for making this happen.
From Season Butler to Everyone: (10:19 pm)
Second that, Ro
From Kevin Boniface to Everyone: (10:19 pm)
Well said, Ronan
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (10:19 pm)
I am very glad my reading was in the second half because canto iv got me all emosh
From Gav Clarke to Everyone: (10:19 pm)
Bula Bos
From Linda to Everyone: (10:20 pm)
Have to leave now - but thank you so much. An amazing evening. My first time, but looking forward to remaining events. Thank you.
From Season Butler to Everyone: (10:20 pm)
Sweet dreams everyone, and thank you xx
From Frances Ottaway to Everyone: (10:21 pm)
Going to go now, but thanks so much for the invitation…. Great
… … in every way
From Kate Armstrong’s iPhone to Everyone: (10:22 pm)
I need to go, I’m afraid. Thank you all for a amazing evening.
From Ruby Cowling to Everyone: (10:22 pm)
Signing off; don't think my heart can take any more. <3
From eley w to Everyone: (10:22 pm)
thank you again, everyone -- sleep tight x
From Helen Ottaway to Everyone: (10:22 pm)
Eley night night lovely reading
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (10:22 pm)
night eley!
From Katie Clammer to Everyone: (10:23 pm)
David - Jonathan's Canto and Guru Dave are my favourite bits of Friday night Leap. Tonight has been WONDERFUL. Thanks so much! goodnight all
From bardsley to Everyone: (10:23 pm)
night Eley lovely reading
From Me to Everyone: (10:23 pm)
Michael, you must be exhausted - thank you that was wonderful
From bardsley to Everyone: (10:23 pm)
that is so English. totally agree (Not sure what this refers to - DC)
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (10:23 pm)
absolutely, Helen, loved the music
From Amy McCauley to Everyone: (10:24 pm)
Thanks to all the readers, to David, Jonathan, Michael and Helen. Love to all x
From Paulette Jonguitud to Everyone: (10:24 pm)
Thank you, all. Buenas noches from Mexico City.
From Helen Ottaway to Everyone: (10:24 pm)
Loved your reading Amy xx
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (10:24 pm)
YES AMY ME TOO loved it so much
From bardsley to Everyone: (10:25 pm)
night amy. loved your reading
From Gav Clarke to Everyone: (10:27 pm)
Looking forward to Spring Sequel in 15 years
From bardsley to Everyone: (10:28 pm)
Loved the music Helen.
From Helen Ottaway to Everyone: (10:28 pm)
Thank you Susanna x
From bardsley to Everyone: (10:28 pm)
really wonderful x
From Christodoulos Makris to Everyone: (10:28 pm)
Thank you again Jonathan, Michael, Helen, David and all! Wonderful evening!
From Helen Ottaway to Everyone: (10:29 pm)
Feeling a bit overwhelmed with love for leaping in general and Spring Journal in particular. Feel so privileged to be part of it
From Gav Clarke to Everyone: (10:29 pm)
Louis’s accent is so surprising from the recordings
From Ronan Hession to Everyone: (10:30 pm)
Perhaps we could end the pandemic for the last Leap?
From Kevin Boniface to Everyone: (10:30 pm)
Just heard that we’ve finally come out of lock down. What a night!
From Michael Hughes to Everyone: (10:31 pm)
Nice one Kevin!
From bardsley to Everyone: (10:31 pm)
incredible news Kevin. what timing
From Kevin Boniface to Everyone: (10:31 pm)
Thanks to everyone for making this so memorable x
From bardsley to Everyone: (10:31 pm)
loved your reading kevin, and your photos.
From Laura hopkins to Everyone: (10:31 pm)
Me too
and I’m wearing your wife’s lovely top as we speak - thanks to both of you
From Kevin Boniface to Everyone: (10:33 pm)
Thought I recognised it. Thanks!
From Gav Clarke to Everyone: (10:33 pm)
Yes, someone else mentioned the choric element, it was hugely enhancing
From bardsley to Everyone: (10:34 pm)
Your music reminded me of John Adams, like the soundtrack from Amore.
From Helen Ottaway to Everyone: (10:35 pm)
Thanks - yes I am part English Pastoral but also part minimalist
From Steph to Everyone: (10:37 pm)
Thanks all for alleviating Leicester's extended lockdown - nighto!
From samskoog to Everyone: (10:37 pm)
We can only hope that COVID19 comes through and proves it truly has the sense of poetic timing we have gradually ascribed to it Ronan. I have to go unfortunately everyone, but thank you for the epic chronicle Jonathan and a wonderful evening everybody.
From Ronan Hession to Everyone: (10:39 pm)
"Rock n Roll School is cancelled"
From bardsley to Everyone: (10:40 pm)
loved that rock and roll school is cancelled. That is the title of a short story.
From Ray Davis to Everyone: (10:41 pm)
Great readers all round; thank you for a memorable night out while confined on a smoky afternoon! (Ray is in California - DC)
From bardsley to Everyone: (10:43 pm)
jonathan did you reference that TV programme Why Don’t you???
From Jonathan Gibbs to Everyone: (10:44 pm)
Yes Susanna! Plato in his cave
From bardsley to Everyone: (10:45 pm)
loved that. brilliant with plato!
From Laura hopkins to Everyone: (10:45 pm)
It’s all my fault
From Emma Devlin to Everyone: (10:47 pm)
lol I was still nervous because I was convinced I was going to mess up the otherwise well-oiled machine lol
From Laura hopkins to Everyone: (10:47 pm)
it was moving because of the distance between the readers
From Paula Kavanagh to Everyone: (10:50 pm)
Thank you all for wonderful evening - I must bid you all adieu
From Laura Hopkins to Everyone: (10:51 pm)
Proximity on screen but each in there own private world
From Gav Clarke to Everyone: (10:51 pm)
that’s a lovely expression Kevin - a joining in place
A come all ye
From Michael Hughes to Everyone: (10:52 pm)
Yes exactly Gav
From Gav Clarke to Everyone: (10:52 pm)
50p in the meter
From FionaMacleod to Everyone: (10:54 pm)
Thank you so much everyone!
From Helen Ottaway to Everyone: (10:54 pm)
My internet is breaking up so badly I think I'd better go. It's been an absolute ball. That you Jonathan, David everyone xx night night
From bardsley to Everyone: (10:54 pm)
i am going to have to go too, nearly midnight here. Thanks so much to Jonathan, David, Helen and all the readers. So brilliant and moving.
From Laura hopkins to Everyone: (10:55 pm)
Good night all what a wonderful wonderful evening.
From Ronan Hession to Everyone: (10:55 pm)
Good night and thank you all
From sarah helps031968 to Everyone: (10:55 pm)
lovely to join you all x
From bardsley to Everyone: (10:55 pm)
night ronan. yes energy was amazing like bergson’s élan vitale
