Inspired by Warkworth Beach in Northumberland on a grey morning, the metaphorical language in this poem has been used to inspire young writers to come up with their own sea poems. The use of kennings (pool-gobbler, wrack-comber) has spurned entire lessons from other teachers, the results of which can be seen in another of my songs, Hymn Of The Ancient Greeks.

Elements of the music for this song were in fact composed in Auckland in New Zealand when I was Composer-In-Schools for the New Zealand Arts Council in 1992. It was used to accompany a poem by New Zealand poet Allen Curnow, Wild Iron, in a creative writing/composing activity by some primary school children. I used the poem and music again a few more times in other schools in New Zealand, but since I left there, the music has lain dormant.

A couple of years ago when I was gathering together songs to go in my collection for young choirs – songs which use simpler part-singing ideas such as rounds, repeating patterns, voice percussion, descants, simple harmonies, partner songs, I remembered this music and its repeating patterns and elements of round and how popular the music had been with its earlier performers and their audiences, and resolved to include it in the collection. Weary and wary of previous correspondence with publishers about copyright permissions and the like, I decided to write new lyrics to my music, adapting as required.

It is a regular treat of mine to go walking along Warkworth Beach in Northumberland, from the village, down past the golf course, then along the beach to the rocks at Birling Carrs and back again. I particularly enjoy this in the autumn and winter when not many others are around, and particularly no dogs which I do not enjoy encountering as they always find me an attractive prospect for the barking at and leaping upon! The grey North Sea always behaves in a wild and of course insistent way and in time I recognised the connections between the music and the water, so I set about writing words to fit with the music inspired by the sounds, sights and feeling of the sea.

Salt mist howl facewards on the wind.

Sea panther roar feetwards on rocks.

Gulls screech cloudwards in the louring, growling sky, gliding, hanging.

Roll, slate wrack-comber! Surge, foam pool-gobbler!

Howl on the wind. Roar on the rocks.

Screech in the clouds. Growl on the sea.

Sea pie parcel skywardly fly as the vasty deep gushes by.

There are always oystercatchers at Birling Carrs, sometimes on the beach too, and they always fly or jump away when the waves wash towards them. The colloquial name for oystercatchers in sea pie and the collective noun for them is a parcel. I really liked this parcel of sea pie phrase and adapted it to be the title of my collection of songs: Sea Pie Parcel. The music on the front cover of the collection is the melody I used for those words.

This song has been performed on many occasions in New Zealand, and most recently by many primary schools, after being promoted by Music Teacher and choral director Megan Flint. It’s also been performed by primary school choirs in the UK, and also in a new arrangement by adult choirs. Here’s The Bridge Singers on this most recent version, recorded during the 2020 lockdowns individually and edited together. the art works and photographs are also by members of the choir: