Written at The Poetry Takeaway, Burnley Canal Festival, by Cecilia Knapp.  Janet was interviewed for a few minutes and this poem was the end result. You may feel like it was written for our choir too. 

The voices sound like night skies

Purples and bruised blues 

and stars.

The voices sound like heather on the hills.

They are everyone’s heartbreak

And everyone’s joy, plaited together,

Reaching fingers into souls-

“Will you go lassie go”-

They sound like hands on shoulders,

Like comfort whispered into ears –

They sound like holding hands. 

They sound like history.

Devastating and beautiful. 

Hopeful and full of tomorrows 

And wing beats

And ancient feelings-

Carried from eyes and heartbeats and lungs through windows, to ceilings.

A veil of sound to stir the silt that sits within us. 

Cecilia Knapp