Some thoughts on the most peculiar relationship that the fast moving modern town has to its situation. Executive versus historical. Nature versus Cafe Latte. Rocks versus paper and scissors.

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Some musings from the Irish Sea on the way from Galloway to Galway.

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This is a further exploration of transience..... of passing to and fro...of lives begun, lived and ended. It is also a celebration of all life.

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The Life Lived

The Life Lived
brought us both here,
yours and mine,
you and me.
Genetic lines -
I am your impurity
your blood mixed;
our commonality
seeming clear
makes each a hybridisation,
nothing pure in the world.
Your dear dead wife,
was she the sorceress
or the apprentice,
the saucer or the cup?
But I am not your cup of tea,
never was.
Your dear dead self
within my thumbs,
some aspect of my nose;
where is your residence now,
if not in the way I swing a hammer
and a certain mystical absorption
with the sound of a clarianet.

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ar 2025

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A few thoughts about the process of change, the fragile nature of human relationships and the value of learning how to be yourself.

Becoming Other

When the hysterical becomes historical,
I’ll see you there -
Don’t mean to be funny but,
you crack me up
like crazy paving.

When daily becomes doolally
I’ll sort it out -
schizophrenia?
I’m a mosaic for you.

When the parting becomes central
I’ll be more Man -
for god’s sake -
Just kick the habit!

When hoping becomes coping
I’ll reconsider -
read the cards?
Get royally flushed.

When promise is compromised
rip up the letters -
Alpha and Beta;
I’ll tear your translateables.

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ar 2025

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The Scales Of The World is an allegorical story following the life of a tree and a man as they are both cut down. The story is presented in several short sections, each of which takes both branch and man on a transformative journey from riverbank through to a flooded world. Each section is represented through a mythical, reptilian being and invites the audience to travel on a journey of reinvention and transcendence.

Prelude - Cracking. A thunderstorm moves down from the mountains and lightening strikes an ancient willow tree. The fallen willow is carried by the river before rooting into the ground and growing upwards again.

Chapter 1 - The Willow Snake. A man is cutting willow by the river to make a basket as a present for an absent lover. As he works a Willow Snake encircles his wrist before he is struck dead by lightening. He falls to the ground amongst cut
willow branches. The willow roots again into the earth and grows up through the body of the man.

Chapter 2 - The Glass Snake. The man enters a spirit realm, a world of confusions. He is confronted by a Glass Snake which challenges his concepts of reality. The man perceives a hot-air balloon passing overhead with a basket hanging beneath it, and beneath that a rope. He reaches for the rope but the rope shatters into a million glass shards and he is lost within the refracted light, falling into a glass vase.

Chapter 3 - Moura, The Eyed Lizard. The man finds himself at the entrance to an underground tomb or gateway. The path is guarded by a Moura. The Moura invites him to enter this other world and to accept his fate.

Chapter 4 - The Great Serpent. The man passes into the earth and meets the Great Serpent, Maxa’ xkuk. The serpent is liquid and solid simultaneously. Its presence signals a great flood that will engulf all the land, swallowing the man along with it. Two branches from the ancient willow tree are carried by the tides to the opposite poles of the world and begin to grow. Each tree produces a single fruit and each fruit contains a single life, and a new beginning.

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Music - Richard Luke
Vocals - Alex Rigg & Breezy Lee
Lyrics - Alex Rigg
String Arrangement - Greg Lawson
Violins - Fiona Stephen & Greg Lawson
Viola - Liz Wyly
Cello - Juliette Lemoine
Harp - Stephanie Irvine
Pipes & Whistles - Ollie Rigg
Percussion - Anders Rigg
Guitar and Piano & Electronics - Richard Luke
Strings recorded live at Cottiers, Glasgow by Mark Mckellen
Mixed and engineered by Richard Luke
Mastered by Andy Baldwin at Metropolis
Cover design by Alex Rigg and Kim Martin

Dancers - Jen Farmer; Suzi Cunningham; Malcolm I Sutherland; Dylan Read; Aaron Jeffrey; Camille Marmié; Rosamund McCormac; KJ Clarke-Davis; Philip Alexander Macdonald; Laura Victoria Ward.

Choreography - Alex Rigg & Bill Coleman.
Written, Designed & Directed - Alex Rigg

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These are a few poems written over the past couple of weeks. I'm not sure if they are about anything, except perhaps my reaction to the passage of thoughts and emotions within myself and a reaction to the places in which I find myself.
The duality of internal and external worlds seems very relevant at this time in our culture and at this moment of big global change.

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Awoke to a head full of histories. The birds here are going doolally for new blossoms in the trees around the house, feeding chicks, drinking heavily on nectar, facing the day as it arrives. Thought that I should try and do the same.

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This is a short poem written looking across at Kapiti Island north of Wellington in New Zealand. Heavily influenced by jet-lag and what has been a very curious year for me.

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