Early Mo(u)rning

...Recited by actor Philip Hurd-Wood.

Writing poetry is like "washing the hands of your soul," at least that's what the late, great German poet Erich Kästner always said.

Often, however, one "scrubs" and "scrubs", yet the "cleansing" rhyme simply does not want to flow, at least not in the way it must have gushed out of the water-faucet of a poetic mind Kästner was lucky to call his own.

In the end, the hands of my soul were still quite dirty and a half-finished poem was banished into the far depths of my drawer, where it dwelled for several years - ignominiously forgotten until ...
 

Yes, until one day, the god of the muses must have felt pity for a struggling poet and sent me an incredible gift. Said gift was male and truly had one of the most beautiful voices I could ever have imagined enhancing my words. Neither would I ever have expected a lovely friendship and ensuing collaboration with British actor and vocal artist Philip Hurd-Wood to spring out of utterly nowhere. So, how did this all begin? 

Perusing my official author website, Phil had stumbled upon the sonnet, "Song of Artimino", which I wrote in 2004 whilst living in Italy. He must indeed have found liking in my feeble attempt to rival Shakespeare, the master of rhyme itself. Because, after reading it, he instantly recorded the sonnet in his studio. (Obviously not only a man of great talent, but of action!)

Shortly thereafter, he sent me an e-mail with the audio file of the poem and a pre-emptive apology fearing he had perhaps been too presumptuous taking such liberty with my humble 'Ode to Cupid'. Yet, how could I have objected to receiving such beauty whilst merely lending words to his impressive craft, albeit unbeknownst to me, at the time?

If your browser does not play this HTML video, you can watch it hereater in the YouTube video version:

With today's interpretation of my poem "Early Mo(u)rning" (note the poet's intentional ambiguity in the title, which sadly only makes sense in English), Philip once again has surpassed himself.

But, not only does his voice easily seduce the senses of all my readers, quickly becoming avid listeners (I'll soon be producing audio books rather than e-books), his silky voice has meanwhile also become my muse, inspiring me to once again attempt my hand at writing English poetry. Not an easy task, I might add.

In his infinite kindness, Philip also - perhaps foolishly - offered to narrate or recite anything I had written in his native tongue. (Imagine winning the lottery!) Thankfully, his kindness did not entail making me promise, all my English material would have to consist of Shakespearean sonnets. Thus, when you visit these pages in the future, you may soon get to hear other outpourings of mine read by this master of the vocal chords. I am sure, with his velvet timbre, he will make it not merely a simple read, but a feast for your ears conjuring up in your mind fantastic scenes the imagination always provides when vocally so enticed.

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