2015 Sound Poem Project Day 25: Ugandan Panpipe

It’s Day 25 of Author Amok's 2015 poem-a-day project. We are spending February writing in response to sounds.  

For a full description of the project and how to participate, please read this post. I hope you'll join us. I'll continue posting poems from Day 25 as they come in. Thanks to everyone who has sent in poems so far. We've got more world music today, poets. 

Our Day 25 prompt is a Ugandan panpipes.

This isn't our sound clip today, but I offered it as a second option. Enjoy another sample of music from Uganda.

Linda Baie of Teacher Dance opted to write in response to the video.

Sitya Loss – Happiness

So,

adolescent boys

dancing free,

strut and dubstep, prance and jump.

No matter where in the world

they be,

boys are boys--

see…

And girls, girls also be

in the world of dance,

see…

She,

she alone,

spree.

Linda Baie © All Rights Reserved

Charles Waters captures the joy of children dancing to music in his poem.

PEARLS OF AFRICA

Flutes decorate the air

As pearls of African beauty

Tap dance barefoot on faded grass,

Chocolate arms glistening,

As Grey Crowned Crows, in

Mohawk bristled glory, bustle about

 In packs while kids, smacking their lips

On plates of bananas, beans,

Spinach, laugh at a joke

Only they can understand.

(c) Charles Waters 2015 all rights reserved.

The original clip for today has a frenetic beat, which you can see reflected in the next set of poems. First, here is Patricia VanAmburg's contribution.

Palpitations

by Patricia VanAmburg

The day his EKG danced

he heard the rhythms of Uganda—

blown breath of stopped flutes

echoing like empty bottles—

continuous rattle of beaded gourds—

cymbals clanging on dancers feet—

the swish of undulating skirts—

peaks and valleys on rustling paper—

secret code for initiation—

through passages of life and death.

Like Patricia, I responded to the pounding rhythm of the music.

Panpipe and Drums

by Laura Shovan

pedaling a bike

through city traffic

weave past

pedestrians

cars, cabs

beeping

skim sidewalks

slip under lights

turning yellow

there' s a beat to it

a racing rhythm

legs pump pedals

like flat palms

against the skin

of a drum

I like the way Mike Ratcliffe hears threads of other styles of music in the clip from Uganda.

Listening to a Ugandan Folk Song

by Mike Ratcliffe

In the panpipes' whirl of this Ugandan tune,
I see dervishes dancing to ecstasy.
I hear the frenzy of a jig or reel,
the familiar skirl of Highland pipes,
the atonality of an Asian song.

When our ancestors left the heartland,
did they carry a common tune,
whistled and hummed,
sung from band to clan
as they moved across the land,
carried down the ages,
coursing through our souls?

Thanks to Diane Mayr of Random Noodling for sharing this bit of research. As Mike pointed out, panpipes are an ancient instrument, found all across the world. Diane says, "The sound clip caption mentioned the 'obulere.' I found it was pan pipes. That started me looking at pan pipes--there are variations all over the world. Then I got hung up on Pan and his pipes. I read several versions of the story--and now there's mine."

Pan's Pipes

by Diane Mayr

To thwart the advances
of Pan, the goat-man,
the lovely nymph, Syrinx
engaged in mythic high jinxs.

She called upon her sisters
to change her into a reed--
a trick not long to succeed.

A breeze came through, it
blew the rushes and reeds
raising a tune, playful and twee
that caused Pan's heart to
skip a beat or two or three.

Pan cut down the reeds to
fashion a flute so he could
toot that song forever.

The story is not all glory,
for Pan soon found tedium
in the medium. And the
medium--she was pleased.

One more video before we end for today. Those of you who have been to the Dodge Poetry Festival will remember the musical group Yarina, from Ecuador. Among the instruments this folk music group plays is panpipe!

Here are all of the sound prompts for the last week of February. Remember, there will be a prize for our most prolific poet.

Sunday, February 22

Footsteps in snow

Monday, February 23

Smoke on the Water

Tuesday, February 24

Sea Turtle

Wednesday, February 25

Ugandan Music

Thursday, February 26

Choose a train sound. Thanks to Myra of Gathering Books for the suggestion!

Friday, February 27

Suggested by Jennifer Lewis.

Saturday, February 28

Sunday, March 1: Project Wrap-up

If you'd like some poem-starters to wake up your muse, you'll find them at the bottom of this post. Drop in any time with a poem. I’ll continue to post your work throughout the month, no matter which sound you are writing in response to.

Would you like to read what we’ve written so far? Here are links to the week 3 poems. Each of these posts links to the week 1 and 2 poems.

Sunday, February 15

Santa Fe Church Bells Poems by Linda Baie, Patricia VanAmburg, Diane Mayr, Laura Shovan, and Charles Waters.

Monday, February 16

Quaking Aspen Poems by Diane Mayr, Charles Waters, Laura Shovan, Patricia VanAmburg, Mike Ratcliffe, and Karin Fisher-Golton.

Tuesday, February 17 -- new poem!

Laughing Child Poems by Charles Waters, Diane Mayr, Laura Shovan, Michael Ratcliffe, Linda Baie, Margaret Simon, and Heidi Mordhorst.

Wednesday, February 18

Mysterious Space Sound Poems by Patricia VanAmburg, Charles Waters, Mike Ratcliffe, Laura Shovan, Linda Baie, Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, and Margaret Simon.

Thursday, February 19

Museum Stairwell Poems by Linda Baie, Mike Ratcliffe, Laura Shovan, Charles Waters, Margaret Simon, Diane Mayr, Patricia VanAmburg, and Karin Fisher-Golton.

Friday, February 20 -- new poems!

Reptile Poems by Linda Baie, Patricia VanAmburg, Margaret Simon, Laura Shovan, Mike Ratcliffe, Donna Smith, Robyn Hood Black, Buffy Silverman, and Charles Waters.

Saturday, February 21

Traditional Chinese Music Poems by Diane Mayr, Mike Ratcliffe, Laura Shovan, Robyn Hood Black, Linda Baie, Patricia VanAmburg, Carol Varsalona, Charles Waters, and Margaret Simon.

2015 Sound Poem Project Day 23: Heavy Metal

It’s Day 23 of Author Amok's 2015 poem-a-day project. We are spending February writing in response to sounds.  

For a full description of the project and how to participate, please read this post. I hope you'll join us. I'll continue posting poems from Day 23 as they come in. Thanks to everyone who has sent in poems so far.

Poet Heidi Mordhorst suggested today's sound clip. In her words: "I'd be very inclined to include a few heart-grabbing, bum-shaking riffs from the classical greats to the rock n roll standards." One of the bum-shaking riffs Heidi recommended was ...

our Day 23 prompt, the opening of "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple.

Sitting in the upper tiers of a rock concert, we might encounter some second-hand smoke. Be forewarned, today's poems get a little trippy and may not be for younger readers.

One of my favorite current songs is "The Bones of You," by the British band Elbow. The whole concept of the song is how hearing a thread of melody can trigger memories of a time, a place, a person.

Here is Linda Baie's offering on that theme.

         When I hear it…

Inside I ignore

my reliving those days.

I really don’t wish to explore.

The beat thrums a song,

brings the earliest ways

of rockin’ as we rolled along.

The spark of the rave

ignites riffs of the dance

to pulsing Deep Purple in waves.

I wish something new.

Not the old notes replayed,

yet ever still thinking of you.

Linda Baie © All Rights Reserved

The opening of "Smoke on the Water" is working on Mike Ratcliffe's memories too. See Mike's website for a little bit more background on his poem.

Smoke on the Water on the Brain

by Mike Ratcliffe

What is it about those notes?

They are stuck on my mind.

Simple notes to start the song,

’bout as basic as you’ll find.

Takes me back to junior high

in the nineteen seventies.

Years that I’d like to forget,

but these notes won’t let me.

Smoke on the water,

I rarely hear it played.

Cuz I only listen

to Indie rock these days.

Margaret Simon has invited us all to a mini-concert. Here is her poem, embedded in a video of her nephew Jack playing Djembe. Rock out!

Diane Mayr's poem reminded me of when my kids were little. In the car, I would put on classic rock stations and they had to guess the band. If they couldn't recognize AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, The Ramones, or Van  Halen, I  was horrified. Their education was incomplete!

Game Show

by Diane Mayr

A child of the early
days of television
I often find myself
a contestant of the
in-my-own-head
"Name That Tune."
I can name a tune
in two or three notes.

$30 was a big prize
when we played
along in front of
the old black and
white RCA console.
Today my prize is
infinitely larger--
my memory, if not
my mind, is intact.

I like the way that Patricia VanAmburg dropped a little modern reference into her Deep Purple poem.

Contact High

by Patricia VanAmburg

smoke on the water

fifty shades of grey

hair on my neck

soft like the sixties

inhaling in motion

riding each ripple

infinite breaths 

I went in the opposite direction, with a 20th century reference. I learned that the name "Deep Purple" came from a dance-hall tune of the 1930s (source). I used a stanza of that song's lyrics to structure my poem.

Deep Purple

by Laura Shovan

When deep notes sweep across the roaring stadium

and the fog machine softens the edges of the stage

in the blue spotlights, we are teenagers again,

singing "Smoke on the Water" until our voices are a memory.

Deep Purple (Original, from Wikipedia)

When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls

And the stars begin to twinkle in the sky—

In the mist of a memory you wander back to me

Breathing my name with a sigh...

I like Charles Waters' focus on the name of the song, "Smoke on the Water," for his poem today.

NATURE’S MAGIC TRICK

Spiraled vapors levitate

From rainwaters bed –

Disappearing into ether.

(c) Charles Waters 2015 all rights reserved.

Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink has been blogging alongside us, trying out some of the sound prompts. She gave me permission to post her poem today, but you can also read it at Beyond LiteracyLink.

Movement to the beat-

fast, lively, full of heat,

sweet rhythm for my dancing feet.

Music picks up-deep and strong,

for life's dance, no right or wrong

when mixing with a clapping throng.

Sway and step to swinging sound.
Listen for those hearts that pound 

and fill the space with joy that's found. 

Come along. Sweep the world with me.
Dance to the tune of possibility
opening doors to let spirits free.

Finally, that bum-shaking, heart-grabbing music-lover Heidi Mordhorst has a poem for us.

Smoke on the Water
by Heidi Mordhorst

the music came first.
you play that game too:
radio’s on, song so familiar now
you can sense the seed of it,
where it started—
maybe the hook, the title, the bridge,
the wordless shouting chorus.

this time it’s the rattlesome high-hat
shimmering above six or seven
dirty buzzing chords, just like
the roar of dirty river water rising,
climbing the banks carrying
rowboats, dogs and trikes.

pick-up truck
crashes into
a fuel tank
and the flames
flare up,
dirty black smoke
on dirty water,

oily fire
in orange
sky.
the music
came
first.

And here, with another take on music and memory, is Elbow's song "The Bones of You." Enjoy!

We're almost at the finish line, poets!

Here are all of the sound prompts for the last week of February. Remember, there will be a prize for our most prolific poet.

Sunday, February 22

Footsteps in snow

Monday, February 23

Smoke on the Water

Tuesday, February 24

Wednesday, February 25

Thursday, February 26

Choose a train sound. Thanks to Myra of Gathering Books for the suggestion!

Friday, February 27

Suggested by Jennifer Lewis.

Saturday, February 28

Sunday, March 1: Project Wrap-up

If you'd like some poem-starters to wake up your muse, you'll find them at the bottom of this post. Drop in any time with a poem. I’ll continue to post your work throughout the month, no matter which sound you are writing in response to.

Would you like to read what we’ve written so far? Here are links to the week 3 poems. Each of these posts links to the week 1 and 2 poems.

Sunday, February 15

Santa Fe Church Bells Poems by Linda Baie, Patricia VanAmburg, Diane Mayr, Laura Shovan, and Charles Waters.

Monday, February 16

Quaking Aspen Poems by Diane Mayr, Charles Waters, Laura Shovan, Patricia VanAmburg, Mike Ratcliffe, and Karin Fisher-Golton.

Tuesday, February 17 -- new poem!

Laughing Child Poems by Charles Waters, Diane Mayr, Laura Shovan, Michael Ratcliffe, Linda Baie, Margaret Simon, and Heidi Mordhorst.

Wednesday, February 18

Mysterious Space Sound Poems by Patricia VanAmburg, Charles Waters, Mike Ratcliffe, Laura Shovan, Linda Baie, Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, and Margaret Simon.

Thursday, February 19

Museum Stairwell Poems by Linda Baie, Mike Ratcliffe, Laura Shovan, Charles Waters, Margaret Simon, Diane Mayr, Patricia VanAmburg, and Karin Fisher-Golton.

Friday, February 20 -- new poems!

Reptile Poems by Linda Baie, Patricia VanAmburg, Margaret Simon, Laura Shovan, Mike Ratcliffe, Donna Smith, Robyn Hood Black, Buffy Silverman, and Charles Waters.

Saturday, February 21

Traditional Chinese Music Poems by Diane Mayr, Mike Ratcliffe, Laura Shovan, Robyn Hood Black, Linda Baie, Patricia VanAmburg, Carol Varsalona, Charles Waters, and Margaret Simon.

2015 Sound Poem Project Day 21: Traditional Chinese Music

It’s Day 21 of Author Amok's 2015 poem-a-day project. We are spending February writing in response to sounds.  

For a full description of the project and how to participate, please read this post. I hope you'll join us. I'll continue posting poems from Day 21 as they come in. Thanks to everyone who has sent in poems so far.

I was in awe when I began reading your poems for today's sound. Although I selected the prompts more or less at random, this clip made for rich poetry.

Our Day 21 prompt is traditional Chinese music recorded in Xinjiang province.

Let’s begin with an illustrated poem by Diane Mayr of Random Noodling.

I love the way Diane can tell a story in such a compact way.

Mike Ratcliffe writes in, “The sound clip put me in a mood for Chinese poetry, especially from the High Tang Period, which I love.”

Listening to a Chinese Folk Tune on the Internet, I Think of the Old Man Playing an Erhu in San Francisco’s Chinatown the Night I Walked Back to My Hotel from North Beach

By Mike Ratcliffe

  

Was that you Li Po, playing the erhu

in that alley in Chinatown?

The mournful tones as you

drew the bow across the strings

caused me to stop staggering

down the street. I swayed slowly

as I held onto a lamppost and listened.

Where did you go, Li Po?

You vanished before I could ask

you to share cups of wine

with me and Kerouac at Vesuvio’s.

I followed the strains of your immortal tune

through the streets that night.

I never saw you again,

but in some ways I think

that was the night I embraced the moon.

After making some notes about the sounds in the clip, I did a little bit of research on the place where it was recorded. Xingjiang is China's largest and most northwest province. It borders on many countries, making it ethnically diverse. This is the source where I read some Urumqi’s disturbing recent history.

Summer in Urumqi

By Laura Shovan

water trickles in the tea garden

            years before riots and mass arrests

a bow glides across the Ban hu’s strings

            now authorities continue to silence

birds joining the song

            abuses in the wake of unrest

voices echo in the garden

            dozens of the Uighur ethnic minority

silverware clinks and rattles

disappeared, still

a sad, gentle song

City of Uruqi with Yamalik Mountain.

Robyn Hood Black is visiting the same garden, but having a different experience. Still, I think the protestors in my poem would appreciate the last tercet in Robyn’s poem.

Crescendo

melody
on a whiff of jasmine tea, and
birdsong

(You talk of flight.)

bow in balance on the string
I listen. Sip. 

(You balance words.)

Look – someone has left open
the wire door
of the cage.

©Robyn Hood Black. All rights reserved. 

There is love and loss in Linda Baie’s tea garden also.

Two Minutes

I saw you then,

while the arboretum filled,

people drawn in by the music,

and you stared at me from your table.

I almost lost you

as the strings moved into another phase.

The violin strengthened.

People spoke louder.

My ears rang

and I kept staring,

listening, looking.

People settled in for

the free concert,

a bird chirped from the ceiling

I grabbed a quick look,

turned

and you were gone.

My concert ended.

Linda Baie © All Rights Reserved

Patricia had trouble hearing the sound clip, so she chose something else recorded by the same person. She says this link “identified the tune as Indian/Pakistani wedding music.”

Ajoli

By Patricia VanAmburgh

To the piping bird

on a far off bough—

the breeze ferries

your melodies—

my yearning calls

each note closer—

until you drift away

Wikomapia says Ajoli is a village. Patricia says, “After I wrote my response, I googled “Ajoli” and found these curious videos on you tube.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeqNxmN9Egc

Be sure to visit Carol Varsalona’s blog, BeyondLiteracy, where she has posted her own Day 21 response, set in New York's Central Park.

I like the way that Charles Waters introduces color into his response poem today.

BIRDS, MUSIC, NATURE

Camouflage coats,

Quivering throats,

Aureate notes,

Violin sighs,

Whispering flies,

Ocean-like skies.

 (c) Charles Waters 2015 all rights reserved.

Let’s end with Margaret Simon’s beautiful image poem.

The Rhythms of a Crowded Cafe'

By Margaret Simon

Clanking of silver taps a beat.

Bird from its cage adds a tweet.

Violin musician strums his tune

While patrons toast the rising moon.

For those interested in reading more about traditional Chinese instruments, this website is informative.

We're almost at the finish line, poets!

Here are all of the sound prompts for the last week of February. Remember, there will be a prize for our most prolific poet.

Sunday, February 22

Sorry about this one, everybody. I swear I chose it back in above-freezing January.

Monday, February 23

Recommended by Heidi of My Juicy Little Universe. Sort of.

Tuesday, February 24

Wednesday, February 25

Thursday, February 26

Choose a train sound. Thanks to Myra of Gathering Books for the suggestion!

Friday, February 27

Suggested by Jennifer Lewis.

Saturday, February 28

Sunday, March 1: Project Wrap-up

If you'd like some poem-starters to wake up your muse, you'll find them at the bottom of this post. Drop in any time with a poem. I’ll continue to post your work throughout the month, no matter which sound you are writing in response to.

Would you like to read what we’ve written so far? Here are links to the week 3 poems. Each of these posts links to the week 1 and 2 poems.

Sunday, February 15

Santa Fe Church Bells Poems by Linda Baie, Patricia VanAmburg, Diane Mayr, Laura Shovan, and Charles Waters.

Monday, February 16

Quaking Aspen Poems by Diane Mayr, Charles Waters, Laura Shovan, Patricia VanAmburg, Mike Ratcliffe, and Karin Fisher-Golton.

Tuesday, February 17

Laughing Child Poems by Charles Waters, Diane Mayr, Laura Shovan, Michael Ratcliffe, Linda Baie, and Margaret Simon.

Wednesday, February 18

Mysterious Space Sound Poems by Patricia VanAmburg, Charles Waters, Mike Ratcliffe, Laura Shovan, Linda Baie, Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, and Margaret Simon.

Thursday, February 19

Museum Stairwell Poems by Linda Baie, Mike Ratcliffe, Laura Shovan, Charles Waters, Margaret Simon, Diane Mayr, Patricia VanAmburg, and Karin Fisher-Golton.

Friday, February 20

Reptile Poems by Linda Baie, Patricia VanAmburg, Margaret Simon, Laura Shovan, Mike Ratcliffe, Donna Smith, and Robyn Hood Black.

Saturday, February 21

Traditional Chinese Music Poems by Diane Mayr, Mike Ratcliffe, Laura Shovan, Robyn Hood Black, Linda Baie, Patricia VanAmburg, Carol Varsalona, and Margaret Simon.