Par FRANCES-HOAD CHERYL. The Sky Stretched Thin, a four-minute piece for baroque or modern violin, takes inspiration from a poem by Simon Armitage written during lockdown with the same title. The week that I read this newly published poem, I also swam in the (very cold!) saltwater of the River Crouch in Essex for the first time in the year. The view from the middle of the river of land, water and …