"quiet is cut, occasionally"
what are the beloved sounds which surround you?
Detail of Ashayet's limestone sarcophagus, 2050 BC. Ashayet was the wife of King Mentuhotep II, Middle Kingdom, Egypt.
I've learned to live simply, wisely
by Anna Akhmatova
translated from Russian by Judith Hemschemeyer
I've learned to live simply, wisely,
To look at the sky and pray to God,
And to take long walks before evening
To wear out this useless anxiety.
When the burdocks rustle in the ravine
And the yellow-red clusters of rowan nod,
I compose happy verses
About mortal life, mortal and beautiful life.
I return. The fluffy cat
Licks my palm and sweetly purrs.
And on the turret of the sawmill by the lake
A bright flame flares.
The quiet is cut, occasionally,
By the cry of a stork landing on the roof.
And if you were to knock at my door,
It seems to me I wouldn't even hear.
Creative Invitation
The burdock rustling, the cat purring, the cry of the stork, the knock at the door. This poem is full of sounds.
It’s easy to forget sound when we describe, write, draw, paint things. Vision has cultural primacy. But sound, a vibration, brings the body into the story.
Sound puts the speaker of the poem into a time and place simultaneously—not just in either a time or a place.
Make lists:
a) ambient sounds you hear in a day
b) sounds that make you very happy
c) when you know you are in a certain place, by its sounds
d) sounds you would like to hear again