Poem written and performed by Bob Beagrie, piano score composed by Glenn Maltman, recording and production by S,J. Forth.

Prodigal

Watching gnats dance
against continents of cloud-
they won’t stray far,
the garden fence greening

you roll sea smooth stones
around the hollows of your mouth
spit out magic for the mic

to bring the great forest
inside the home, you took,
within a box of relics

burnished autumn packages, 
a fox fur carried 
by geese flying south
necks stretching

into next year’s final frost, 
when you will have to turn back
(running time run out),

where a toppled statue of power
someone’s father, lies in the rain, 
waiting for the flood, your head 

stuffed with translucent cities
a street of storytellers, a black desert
you’ll say was once a fertile plain
littered with wild flowers, 

whatever pilfered beliefs 
fill your pockets
we’ll plant in our garden,

a tower block’s stairwell and a broken lift 
sit in each cochlear, the dodgy clutch
of my car slips, the engine stalls
traffic backs up


seasons shift,
the incinerator drifts off
its dinner, gulls whirl like its snores,
 
flying widdershins about a fairy ring 
on a sponsored roundabout,
combing a breadcrumb path 
through ground mist;

though we both know you’ll always 
take the slow road; trying to forget 
the direction, denying the truth of maps -
you’ll drag the story back

to where you suspect there’s a rabbit off
in a waterlogged field that cradles
dripped flames of shepherd’s delight;

a nightjar’s nest, a single egg,
the shell beginning to crack
like the home that waits for your hand
upon the door knob, your foot upon the step.


Prodigal - Project Lono & Glenn Maltman

A poem written by Bob Beagrie from the collection 'This Game of Strangers' by Wyrd Harvest Press.
Music by S.J. Forth and Carl Walton.

Lancelot Takes The Bins Out

A poem written and read by Bob Beagrie set to original music by S.J.Forth. This poem was published in the collaborative collection 'This Game of Strangers (Wyrd Harvest Press 2017) written with Jane Burn, which explores and re-imagines the legends of Sire Lancelot and Queen Gwenyvere.

I Was Too Out Of It To Realise - Projectlono

A poem written and performed by Bob Beagrie with original music by SJ Forth.
This poem is part of a sequence entitled 'Civil Insolencies' which is inspired by and reflects upon the English Civil War and the Battle of Guisborough on 16 January 1643.

Pathogen

A poem written and read by Bob Beagrie, accompanied by lutenist Peter Lagan, recorded and arranged by SJ Forth.

This poem is part of the sequence 'Civil Insolencies' which is inspired by and reflects on events during the English Civil War and the Battle of Guisborough on 16 January 1643.

Aunt Anne's Canticle For Calm

Poem written and performed by Bob Beagrie with original music composed by SJ Forth. 
This piece is part of the sequence 'Civil Insolencies' which is inspired by the English Civil War and the battle of Guisborough on 16 January 1643. This poem imagines the stillness of the battlefield at dusk with owls emerging to fly around and hunt and feast upon the remains, and ties together several of the narrative threads of earlier poems.

Things the Owls Observed

poem written and read by Bob Beagrie accompanied by lutenist Peter lagan, recorded and arranged by SJ Forth. 
This piece is part of the sequence 'Civil Insolencies' inspired by the English Civil War and the Battle of Guisborough in 16 January 1643.

Inside the Severed Head of Captain Browne Bushell

From 'Civil Insolencies: Poems inspired by the Battle of Guisborough, January 16th 1643.
Poem written and read by Bob Beagrie, music by Anton Flint & SJ Forth.

Justification Of The Mad Crew: The Mummers Play

A piece featuring The Lyke Wake Dirge sung by John Dunleavy, overlaid by a poem written and read by Bob Beagrie, with music and sound effects by SJ Forth.
The piece captures the forced march of the Parliamentarian troops  across the North York Moors toward the Battle of Guisborough, 16th January 1643.
(From Civil Insolencies)

Forced March

From 'Civil Insolencies'
a poem written and read by Bob Beagrie with music by SJ Forth.

The Parliamentarian recruits under Sir Hugh Cholmley continue their forced march across the North York Moors toward Guisborough to meet the Royalists in Battle on 16th January 1643.

Procession

Poem written an read by Bob Beagrie with music composed by SJ Forth

The Hand Of Glory - Projectlono

Dindsencha

April evening
on the street
of a murdered fire god
river mist places
cold kisses
of welcome upon
each cheek, dampens
lashes with crocodile tears
 
Where a scrap car
fortification, stripped of parts,
is stacked in a false-precarious
quarterbond, rising
over an auto-yard’s
crumbling wall
 
In the Dream
I have washed up again
on the mudflats of a black river
beside rotten stumps
of old coal staithes;
a stoppered bottle
with a message –
and no idea what it says
 
Through the bars
of the oval window
where furnace and kiln
once roared, the fog-
bound Transporter
slowly disappears
as if beamed onboard
The Enterprise
 
Remember, a lost garden
round here somewhere
made by workers for workers
with paths meandering
through a hundred trees,
animal totems,
to a grotto of shells with
clear running water 
 





Do I mimic your grisly actions, Mommy
as I gather emblems of dismemberment:
a clump of ballast clay, a shard
of Durham coal, splinters
of Scandinavian timber
an impression
from an ammonite spiral
a bluster of cherry blossom
in the gutter
 
At the end of the road
the hydraulic clock tower
(which once worked
the lock to the dock)
wears Temenos
like a pair
of Micky Mouse ears
 
In An Saol Eile
I have returned
having ridden sea-deep rages
scraping horizon’s rind
on the promise
of charting Newfoundland,
spits and bars of Terra Incongita,
unlocking the door
to the Northern Passage,
claiming the godhead of Lono
 
While in the Waking
I know I never left the clutch
of this damp shore that clings
to the skin like mist, like a sail
used as a winding sheet
 
Oh Mother, did you bind together
again my bite-marked remains
with the trade wind’s incantations
to craft another coil
for the hand-me-down man,
I am?


Dindsencha - Bob Beagrie & SJForth

How man was made again - Bob Beagrie,SJForth feat.Henwen

Tumbleweed - Bob Beagrie & SJForth

Project Lono is a collaborative experiment between electronic musician S.J. Forth and poet Bob Beagrie, who are exploring the integration of the spoken word with original music and sound scapes. They perform many of these tracks live at various spoken word and poetry events. These tracks are mainly from the second album 'Dindsencha'. Their first album, 'Briers',  was released in the summer of 2012.
'How Man Was Made Again' features backing vocals courtesy of Henwen, sampled from from 'Rissognolet' (Echoes 2006), 'Prodigal' features an original Piano score composed for the poem by 'Glenn Maltman', 'Green Spell', 'Holding Liquid' and 'Forest Call' feature the far out funk guitar sounds of Carl Walton, 'Lady of the House of Sleep' features throat singing over and undertones by the amazing Kev Howard, 'A Lesson In Letting Go' and 'Slow Recovery' both feature the sweet melancholic guitar of Glenn McDougall.

We are proud to be a part of the underground artistic scene in the mythical land of Teesside where creative genius thrives like fungi through the post-industrial urban gloaming. We hope you dig this stuff.


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