Chamodi Waidyathilaka

“The Bourne
Underneath the growing grass,
Underneath the living owers, Deeper than the sound of showers: There we shall not count the hours
By the shadows as they pass. Youth and health will be but vain,
Beauty reckoned of no worth:
There a very little girth
Can hold round what once the earth
Seemed too narrow to contain.”
― Christina Rossetti, Christina Rossetti in Poetry and Prose

“The Isle of Moila is the first stop past Tobermory. It is not a large island, perhaps nine miles by five, with formidable cliffs to the north-west that face the weather like the prow of a ship. From the steep sheep-bitten turf at the head of these cliffs the land slopes gently down towards a glen where the island’s only sizeable river runs seawards out of a loch cupped in a shallow basin among low hills. Presumably the loch – lochan, rather, for it is not large – is fed by springs eternally replenished by the rain, for nothing flows into it except small burns seeping through rush and bog myrtle, which spread after storms into sodden quagmires of moss. But the outflow is perennially full, white water pouring down to where the moor cleaves open and lets it fall to the sea.”
― Mary Stewart

“Wood Music: A Playlist
Foals, ‘Birch Tree’, 2015
Arnold Bax, November Woods, 1917
The Beatles, ‘Norwegian Wood’, 1965
Igor Stravinsky, ‘Berceuse’, from The Firebird, 1910
A Woodland Reading List
William Boyce and David Garrick, ‘Heart of Oak’, 1760 George Butterworth, The Banks of Green Willow, 1913 ——, ‘Loveliest of Trees’, from ‘A Shropshire Lad’, 1911 Editors, ‘I Want a Forest’, 2009
Edward Elgar, String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83, 1919 ——, Quintet in A minor, Op., 84, 1918
——, Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, 1919
——, Owls: An Epitaph, Op. 27, 1907
Keane, ‘Somewhere Only We Know’, 2004
Lindisfarne, Dingly Dell, 1972
Oasis, ‘Songbird’, 2002
Pink Floyd, ‘Careful with That Axe, Eugene’, 1969
Camille Saint-Saëns, ‘Le Coucou au Fond des Bois’ (‘The Cuckoo in the
Depths of the Wood’), 1886
Pablo Casals, ‘El Cant dels Ocells’ (‘Song of the Birds’), 1961
Antonín Dvořák, Waldesruhe (‘Silent Woods’) for cello and orchestra, Op.
68, no. 5, 1894
Edvard Grieg, Lyric Pieces, Op. 43, no. 4, ‘Little Bird’, 1886
Franz Liszt, Legende S.175 no. 1, St Francis of Assisi preaching to the
birds, 1863
Monty Python, ‘The Lumberjack Song’, 1975
Van Morrison, ‘Redwood Tree’, 1972
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, ‘Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja’ (‘The Bird-
catcher, that’s me’), from Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), 1791 George Perlman, ‘A Birdling Sings’, from ‘Ghetto Sketches’, 1931 Pulp, ‘The Trees’, 2001
Radiohead, King of Limbs, 2011
Robert Schumann, ‘Jäger auf der Lauer’ (‘Hunters on the Lookout’), from Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), Op. 82, no. 2, 1850–51
——, ‘Freundliche Landschaft’ (‘Friendly Landscape’), from Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), Op. 82, no. 5, 1850–51
Jean Sibelius, ‘The Aspen’, no. 3, ‘The Birch’, no. 4, ‘The Spruce’, no. 5, from Op. 75, ‘The Trees’, 1914–19
Trad., ‘The Trees They Do Grow High’
——, ‘The Willow Tree’
The Verve, ‘Sonnet’, from Urban Hymns, 1997 Paul Weller, ‘Wild Wood’, 1993”
― John Lewis-Stempel, The Wood: The Life & Times of Cockshutt Wood

“Two Pursuits
A voice said: ‘Follow, follow:’ and I rose
And followed far into the dreamy night, Turning my back upon the pleasant light.
It led me where the bluest water ows,
And would not let me drink; where the corn grows
I dared not pause, but went uncheered by sight Or touch; until at length in evil plight
It left me, wearied out with many woes. Some time I sat as one bereft of sense:
But soon another voice from very far Called: ‘Follow, follow:’ and I rose again.°
Now on my night has dawned a blesséd star;
Kind, steady hands my sinking steps sustain, And will not leave me till I shall go hence.”
― Christina Rossetti, The Complete Poems