It's taken me over a month to finish the music to the poem 'Lovely things anew'. Here it is!

I like the word parsley, and had the good fortune to be pricking out little parsley seedlings one recent Saturday. So delicate, and beautiful root systems, clear white, about twice as tall as the seedlings, if they are let to grow. 

From parsley seed

Sarah sowed these parsley seeds,

Which now I’m moving on;

They curtsey to the passing sun

With tender tutu leaves,

While white, riverine roots,

Enchant the sunken rain in a weft of threads,

From sleep below in darkened beds,

To rise again, and lave their droughty shoots.

Another world I cannot see,

Spins itself out of liquid and light,

Solidifies from air,

The heft of energy,

A spell of order on timeless night;

And all because Sarah sowed them there.

Shadowless

For acres of January there are no shadows,

Just flat light,

All the best things seen but not felt,

Untouchable,

Like my children now.

Not lost, not lost, I know,

Loved but no longer dwelt in,

The way that happens, the unintentional

Sharing, the slight

Movement of faces in the supper-candle’s shadow.

I, I, I, I, I, I

Glenelg is a beautiful place on the west coast of Scotland, where the currents race through between Skye and the mainland. The name is a palindrome, and the music is palindromic too; I think that makes it seem like it's always asking a question. The poem is really a question - about the unseen forces that run our lives.

Click the link to go to the Glenelg poem and music.