# Solipsism at St Peter’s

By Peter Howitt, 16 November 2025.
Web page: https://compossible.blog/2025/11/16/solipsism-at-st-peters/
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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I tried to _sklent_

to see if you 

were enjoying Joep

as much as I

the Dutch poet 

at the pulpit

(in his sanctuary)

striking looking

like an

Old Testament

prophet

* * *

I heard the keys

gentle Goliath

struck

to unlock

the magic wooden box

and the sounds drifted up

t'wards heaven

(if they …escape

…the vaulted nave)

* * *

I wondered if 

we too 

are music

trapped vibrations

echoing off the walls

until one day we are 

at rest, as one

with all around us

(the self absorbed)

eternally fading minor notes

still part of the greater song

* * *

I felt you tremble

watched mute

as your body racked

with stifled sobs

so English not to cause a fuss

(you know for Scots it's all about us)

the impoliteness of your grief

caught you unawares 

washing through you like a wave 

carrying everything to nothing 

from everywhere to nowhere

* * *

I touched you to say 

I am here

I care 

and wondered if it was

just the piano chords 

that brought you back

to Jim

(you played them to him as he died)

* * *

I imagined what hurt most 

was the silence 

between each stroke

all those quiet notes

we sometimes hear

so much space within

between every thing

was it there you found your Dad again?

* * *

![](/images/uploads/2025/11/st-peters.webp)_St Peter's Sanctuary, AI image created from a photo_ ![](/images/uploads/2025/11/joepb.jpg)Joep Beving Poster, St Peter's, Blossom St, Manchester