Dawnings

Shapes of play

By Nicholas Hooper

The greened up triangle that supports my swing seat,
the house on stilts, the ladder and the curling slide,
all make a place of play outside my window.

Quiet now, but children have played and squabbled
and climbed and swung on these shapes of play
on sunny days as we watch them and learn how we
descended from trees to live a life on the ground,
the child in us left swinging from branches and singing
‘look at me, look at me I’m a monkey!’
And so you are!

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About Dawnings:
“Every morning at around 5am I get up and go down to my studio. After a short meditation I write down whatever is in my head, giving myself fifteen minutes to do so. Then moving over to the piano (or a more portable instrument like my Ukulele when I'm away), I improvise and record a piece of music inspired by whatever words I just wrote. It is a great way of keeping both my writing and my composing going and I call these small creations Dawnings. They are mostly unedited, like sketches, so that they keep that fresh feeling of an early morning discovery.”

— Nick Hooper