Poem

For Formby, a poem of intertwined collective memories by Scott Farlow, read by local residents on the White Solstice event.

3.55pm Conch Shell calls everyone together and announces Sunset.

I am the fire.
I arc across the heavens.
I rise and fall,
Yet always return,
Like you do,
To this magical, mysterious and mythical place.

Welcome to this ever-turning, rotating,
Returning,
Turning point.
Here,
Beneath the pine trees,
At the gateway to the shores and seas,
The portal to the heavens and stardust,
A platform above unseen lands
And a labyrinth of other life
Beneath your feet.

**GONG**

Welcome to this special place
At the Winter Solstice.
We are gathered together,
Here and now,
Beneath these trees
At the gateway to the seas
With family, friends and strangers.
As day becomes night
Balanced and equal,
As light becomes dark and awaits the new dawn of a new day.
This moment of transformation;
A tipping point,
A re-awakening
In this ever changing edge-land.

**GONG**

FORMBY
FOREVER HERE
FOREVER THERE
FOR EVERYONE

Formby,
Forever in our hearts.
Formed by
The wild waves and shaped by the wild winds.
Bringing the ancient sands of weathered rocks
And fragments of old life;
Shelled creatures and coral,
From the wild seas
To make new life
Across this unique
And ever changing land.
Formby;
Where
Earth meets the sea meets the earth
Meets the vast, sometimes scary sky
Meets the edge-land and buffeted sandlands,
Overlapping and interwoven
Into the very fabric of this
Elemental, mystical and beautiful place.

YOUR HOME.

This special place
An eternall re-shifting
Re-shaping, forever changing
Landscape and seascape.
An unfurling, tide-turning,
Moon-bathed drama;
An ever-present
Ebb and flow amidst the stardust and echoed in the
Deepest, darkest, bluest, brightest, coolest, loudest, faintest birdsong.

**GONG**

I am the fire
I arc across the heavens.
I rise and fall,
Yet always return
Like you do
To this magical, mysterious and mythical place.

**GONG**

Here we are,
Together
In this place
At this turning point
To honour the dark
And to call in the light
The return. The renaissance.
We are here, despite the chill,
To reflect upon what was,
What is now, and what will never be.

To pause at this moment of renewal,
To reconnect,
To look ahead,
To make a collective wish, a personal promise,
On this solstice;
To seek a new beginning,
Or, perhaps,
A shared hope for what will be.
Hope for tomorrow.
Dreams for all days,

FOR US
FOR FORMBY
FOR EVERYONE
FOR ALWAYS

We are here together,
To honour the sands,
Of this ever-changing land,
To honour the winds and the waves,
The salt of the sea,
The fresh rains,
And the earth of interwoven
Lives and loves and richness of life here.
In this place;

AS IT WAS THEN,
AS IT IS NOW,
AND AS IT WILL BE
WHEN WE LEAVE.

**GONG**

And
We are the sand, the wind, and the waves,
The earth, the air and the ocean,
You know us. We are entwined
We are always here
For you.

**GONG**

I am sand.
I am here. Between your toes,
Beneath waves,
And there stretching across distant lands.

I am made of little bits of everything.
Like Life, Like you
Like life, Like you
Like life, Like you

Ever-changing. Constantly re-shaping.
Like Life, Like you
Like life, Like you
Like life, Like you

The dunes are made of different bits of sand.
They are the same, yet always different.
Like Life, Like you
Like life, Like you
Like life, Like you

You cannot count me. You cannot catch me.
Try as you like. For I am countless, elusive, unquantifiable.
My grains slip through your fingers,
Through the grasses and gorse and willows and buckthorn,
From sea to shore,
From feet to woodland floor
And through front doors to kitchen floors,
And back again.
I bring you joy and tears in equal measure,
Though my fragments
Are immeasurable quantities,
I am complete.
I am whole.
I am timeless
I am host to your footprints
And other imprints from times past.
I am infinite colour, texture and moments in time.
I am your memories.
I am like life.
Like you.

PAUSE

I am water.
I cycle from reservoir to reservoir; ceaselessly
Rising from the oceans and
Travelling in disguise.
All is revealed when
I fall
Back to earth
Bringing life to parched lands, barren lands, wetlands
And cupped hands.
I am made welcome
And rejected
In equal measure.
I rejuvenate, replenish, restore and revive.
I dismantle, denude, disperse and destroy.
I am here now,
Above, below and on the surface;
Saline and fresh,
Within and without you.
I bring delight,
Rainbows in sunlight,
Magic and memories
From the mists of time.
I am timeless.
So simple, so strange,
So complex and beguiling.
I am life. Like you

Like life, Like you
Like life, Like you

I am the beginning, the middle and the end.
As I ceaselessly cycle my cycle and
Return to the sea.
Then back to land.

PAUSE

I am wind.
I am free.
Not stuck to the ground.
Not earthbound.

I go anywhere I wish.
Whenever, wherever and in whatever mood I wish.
You can hear and feel me
But
You cannot see or hold me.
I am both good and bad.
I make things and break things.
Create and destroy.
I am a force to be reckoned with,
Yet, also and remarkably, I am
Capable of warmth and gentle acts of kindness;
A kiss on the cheek, once a week,
Offering exhilaration and joy,
Freshness and light,
Blowing the cobwebs out of sight.
I bluster and blast
Waves from the seas
Sweeping dead wood and leaves from trees
Debris piled across flatlands
And hinterlands.
I am only passing through.
And quickly move on
Leaving calm,
Hushed
Silence.
Before returning
In another
Disguise.
I am like you, Like Life
I am like you, like Life
I am like you, like Life

PAUSE
**GONG**

I am the fire
I arc across the heavens.
I rise and fall,
Yet always return
Like you do
To this magical, mysterious and mythical place.

You are drawn here.
To us.
We are timeless,
And time itself.
We are lifeless
And life itself.
We are a host of contradictions,
We are the essence of your lives,
Loves and loss.
Lost and found.
We are pleasure and pain,
Joy and heartbreak,
Hope and fear,
All that is here,
And there,
All that was then,
Is now
And will be tomorrow.

We are the language of this land,
The spirit of this place,
The trusted keepers of secrets
And sensitivities

In each grain of sand
In each breath of air
In each drop of water

We are the collective
Conscious conscience,
Watched over by the fire of the sun
And the ever-gazing moon.
The embodiment of hearts, minds and experiences,
The mirror of your memories.

A vast scrapbook of special days,
Dreams and dancing,
A complex collage of discoveries
Past, present and future,
Shared and reflected
In your presence
Here and now:

-SILENCE-

A memory for mum

**Conch shell calling the memories**

Of long, adventurous walks.
And long and special talks.
Meandering through the woods,
Down to the beach together,
Fresh-faced and reflecting on days gone by.
Of seeing different things.
And seeing things differently.
Of looking up
Through the trees
And thinking they might fall down.

Of dens in the woods.
Of Running and jumping,
Tripping and tumbling.
With the dogs
Weaving their way
Between tired legs.

Of a stick, a motorbike,
A horse, a sword,
A staff, a wand
My magic stick.

Of digging in the sand.
Of hiding and seeking.
And pee-ing in the grass.
Of balancing on logs.
And falling off.

Of being silly. In the sand.
Of running up. Sliding down.
Hand in hand,
And rolling around
Safe in the dunes.

Of having fun.
With Frisbee. And friends.
And the family. And a football.
Of finding a feather
And feeling good.

Of Laughing and laughter.
Of a sharp intake of breath,
At the thrill of the chill
Of the water and the waves
Washing up
Washing down.
Incessantly.
Back and forth,
Over toes. And little feet.
Then up to your knees and over your waists,
And gasps and shrieks
Until you can’t touch the floor,
Anymore.
But, luckily,
Dad can.
Of making fun
More fun.
And special moments more special,
And flying kites higher and higher
Again and again and again.

Of discovering jellyfish, lizards and toads,
And pirates.
And shipwrecks.
And spanners.
And special shells
And unusual stones that look like families standing together,
And sandcastles, sand cities and moats full of water.

Of making pictures from pinecones,
Scattered like confetti
In the woods,
After picnics of sand filled sandwiches.
And playing upside down,
Hanging in the trees.
Of falling off,
And over,
And onto and into
And under the fragile surface.

But it doesn’t hurt.

Of the generous and extraordinary
Asparagus Man,
Of hunting and gathering,
And Nature’s larder.
It is all deliciously here.

Of being stuck in the mud,
Staring out to the magic of the sea,
Gazing at the skyline,
And being buffeted by the breeze
And breathing wondrous fresh air.

Of counting the hours,
The days, the months, the years,
Of old slow times
And the twenty-seven red squirrels,
Spied here and there,
Out and about like the tide.

Of crying happy tears.
Again.
To miss this place
And to return,
Drawn back home, here,
To this land, these trees, these dunes,
This space, this spirit in the flow of the grains of sand,
The sky and the stargrass,
And the freedom of the boardwalk,
And the freedom of the beach
And the love
Of loving the sunsets
And the calm
Here
Away
From the storm
And the crush and chaos
Of the underground
And overground streets
Of a life
Elsewhere.

PAUSE

We are all here now.
Protected by these pines,
Enveloped by the giant all-embracing sky,
Listening to our heartbeats in the sound of the silence
And the ever-present wind,
And ever-shifting sands, the close but distant seas,
And imagining the orange glow of sunrise
And sunset
And smiling
At the iconic, enigmatic and ever present
Silent stars.

-SILENCE-

IS NOW TIME TO MAKE A WISH
A PROMISE. A HOPE FOR NOW
AT THIS TURNING POINT, AND
FOR THE FUTURE
TAKE A MOMENT
THEN SET IT FREE
TO THE WIND THE SAND THE STARS
THE SUN AND THE SEA.

**GONG PLAYS RHYTHM – CHANTING**

FORMBY; FOREVER HERE, FOREVER THERE
FOR EVERYONE

FORMBY; FOREVER HERE, FOREVER THERE
FOR EVERYONE
FORMBY; FOREVER HERE, FOREVER THERE
FOR EVERYONE

FORMBY; FOREVER HERE, FOREVER THERE
FOR EVERYONE
FORMBY; FOREVER HERE, FOREVER THERE
FOR EVERYONE
FORMBY; FOREVER HERE, FOREVER THERE
FOR EVERYONE
FORMBY; FOREVER HERE, FOREVER THERE
FOR EVERYONE
FORMBY; FOREVER HERE, FOREVER THERE
FOR EVERYONE

-UV LIGHTS COME ON-

Hush now. It is time to say goodnight
Thank You.