The sonnet was the first piece of work completed for the project. I had thought of Delver as a character with a more modern frame of mind, and used half-rhymes in some places to disguise the sonnet-ness of the words.

Maria Alejandra Velasquez Restrepo – voice

Holly Bryan – horn

Nina Horvath – keys

Buff Allen – drums

Trevor Tunnacliffe – bass

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Sonus
(Delver)
On thrumming vessel deck, the charts half-rolled,
Pinned down against salt gusts. They’re incomplete:
Vast gaps obscure those lineaments beneath
That trace earth’s crust with all her rents and folds.

While empty bottles wobble ‘cross the teak,
Set instruments, absorb the roll and pitch
From which to calculate position fixed
And generate a stable sonar sweep.

The signal sent, now shimmering between
Pulse and return of echoes from abyss,
The lace-faint whispers of unfathomed clefts
And spires that mark convulsive shifts, unseen
But by pale phosphor eyes of grotto fish,
Proves geologic drift, earth’s living breath.