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The Bell Ringers
with thanks to Peter Jupp for introducing me to the
St Salvator’s Society of Bell Ringers, and to the bells:
Annie, Agnes, Elizabeth,
Katharine, Margaret, George
They stand in a ring of six, feet planted,
facing each other. Arms raised
to the great ropes with their sallies, they wait
like a still tree, its branches spread
to catch the quickening wind.
Which comes, as clapper hits bronze,
and the ringers let the pattern go hunting: Annie,
the treble, changes places with Agnes, with
Elizabeth, Katharine, Margaret, George:
Each bell sings out in turn, gives tongue
as the branches thresh, their music taking flight -
clamouring, tumbling, ecstatic - flung
from the top of the tower and out, out
over the roofs and spires of the town.
Anna Crowe, 2018
Website by Simon Chadwick