April 2015
I grew up in Pennsylvania, just south of the Appalachian mountains. Our family often visited our Irish coal mining relatives in Schuylkill County. I earned an M.S. in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Wisconsin, and have remained in the Midwest ever since. I currently teach high school African and Asian Cultural Studies, and am the advisor for the school poetry club and the District One break dancers. Some of my poems can be read on Verse Wisconsin Online. http://versewisconsin.org/issue113.html
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Author's Note: Tuvan throat singing arises from animist traditions in Central Asia and is a method whereby a singer can vocalize up to four pitches at once.
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Tuvan Throat Song
Tuvan throat singers
arrive at the Midwestern
bookstore
nomadic storytellers
not of printed word
but more of science and emotion
geography of sound
their hooves thrum staccato
over Steppe
where grass synthesizes sunlight
on and on
beyond horizon
a sun shivers vermillion haze
over late summer’s eve
lesser kestrels shudder and swoop
into singular
gossamer thought
masculine cicadas
frenzy their tymbals
into wing flicks
eggs quiver their sperm ditties
from tunnels in the dark
it’s as if these singers
possess some
metaphysical understanding
of string theory
throat shaman of Tuva
broadcast this
essential truth
all nouns agitate
whistle and hum
even my grandfather
rumbles from his grave
©2015 Sylvia Cavanaugh