Saint David's Day

Today is St David's Day, and while the melody of the haunting lament 'David of the White Rock' is by a blind Bard named David Owen (d. 1749 at the age of 29), who was married, and not the great Welsh saint, who was a monk, it does not seem inappropriate to remember it today. A lovely, simple, authentic harp performance by Mark Harmer may be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ict1WfPKlzE. The words were added after Owen's death.

"Bring me my harp,"

was David's sad sigh,

"I would play one more tune before I die.

Help me, dear wife,

put the hands to the strings,

I wish my loved ones

the blessing God brings."

"Last night an angel

called with heaven's breath:

David, play, and come

through the gates of death!

Farewell, faithful harp,

farewell to your strings,

I wish my loved ones

the blessing God brings."

For anyone who has played the harp and has known the intimate, physical relationship that develops, this song has a special power. When, in Alaska, the lid was nailed on to the crate containing my harp to ship to Seattle to sell—there is no space in my tiny Oxford aerie to have one—it felt as though the lid on my coffin were being nailed down.

In Alaska the wilderness welcomed me, and whales sounded my bones. Sometimes my harp settled so sweetly into its tuning that alone it played the music of the spheres. It is always trying to play, even if it risks destroying itself. That is the nature of harps. (Writing the Icon of the Heart, p. 104)