The phrase has rattled around on the edges of awareness for over a week and has finally found it's way into a new piece. I don't think I can call it a song proper. It's a response, a prelude to a beautiful song written by Alkinoos Ioannidis, a Greek-Cypriot songwriter with whom I'm collaborating in Athens this week. His song is called "Pilgrim", from an album of songs all on a pilgrimage theme. It's an odd coincidence as I'm digging away at a longer term project with storyteller Claire McNicol - also called Pilgrim.
"Grief is just love with no home" has become a refrain for the piece, which is shaped around the image of a wee man in a wee paper boat. That's what comes of visiting the marvellous George Wylie exhibition at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow in early February (Wylie constructed an 82 foot long paper boat and sailed it up the River Clyde in 1990, in what's perhaps the best remembered and most loved public art statement yet in this country).
A tiny man, A tiny boat
Of tender paper hull and sails
They float upriver, ushered by the tide
And in the little boat a light
is constant through the keening days and nights
with only Heaven for a bride
The new piece and more coming this weekend to Athens' Fuzz Club for an airing. Athens. Where Spring has arrived already and winter coats are no longer required. Show me the way!
Find our about Alkinoos here:
You can hear a version of Pilgrim here:
Find out about George Wylie here:
"Grief is just love with no home" has become a refrain for the piece, which is shaped around the image of a wee man in a wee paper boat. That's what comes of visiting the marvellous George Wylie exhibition at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow in early February (Wylie constructed an 82 foot long paper boat and sailed it up the River Clyde in 1990, in what's perhaps the best remembered and most loved public art statement yet in this country).
A tiny man, A tiny boat
Of tender paper hull and sails
They float upriver, ushered by the tide
And in the little boat a light
is constant through the keening days and nights
with only Heaven for a bride
The new piece and more coming this weekend to Athens' Fuzz Club for an airing. Athens. Where Spring has arrived already and winter coats are no longer required. Show me the way!
Find our about Alkinoos here:
You can hear a version of Pilgrim here:
Find out about George Wylie here: