We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Mirabelle

from Hope of a Tree by Schwa

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £1 GBP  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

A poem by Spafford based on a real life experience of plums and gods one morning in Leeds on an early spring day.

lyrics

As if they were waiting for a world to begin. As if they were waiting for a world to begin and had gathered for the view, plum position, here on our lawn.

Gods, she had said. There are gods in the Mirabelle tree.

It was early, I was wrestling on a sock. But the way she said it, more breath than voice, made me join her there at the bedroom curtain.

Kids, I thought, sitting in the branches, thumbing their phones. But we both knew. Instead of some other Monday’s finches flicking, they had settled here; a stillness, a grace of them.

Small, I said. A bit small for gods.

The binocs, she said. Though I’d already grabbed our battered copy of The God Spotter’s Guide.

Hathor, Lady of the Sycamore, was swinging her legs. Then Dog-headed Penghou, his arm around a dryad. And Tapio, tiara’d with a fresh Finnish fir branch.

And Nang Tani and Jinmenju. A gallery of sprites and faes from The Arboreal. And there at the top, like the Christmas fairy, Baltic Lauma. I could have sworn she waved.

Who could imagine a humble plum supporting such godhood? And yet we had expected it, were prepared.

Where else would they gather for this convention, and when, if not Now, as the earth tilts like an upturned table, and the silvery ones from undiscovered stars prepare to descend?

credits

from Hope of a Tree, released March 1, 2023
Words. Peter Spafford. Music: Richard Ormrod. Production: Richard Ormrod.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Schwa image

Schwa Leeds, UK

Welcome in Schwa: Peter Spafford writes poetry and plays the piano; Richard Ormrod plays other instruments and arranges tunes. More recently, Jacqui Wicks sings and plays the ukulele.

contact / help

Contact Schwa

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like Schwa, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
listen now