April 2019
NOTE: I’ve thought a lot about my poems since Firestone’s terrifying “best” category. The poem I offer, “Earth Music”, published by Firestone in August, 2016, is in a style I don’t use any more. I hope I’ve written better since I wrote this poem. I would be disappointed if this is not so. Now I’m seeking a more natural voice and more subtle rhythms and when I look again at this poem, there are things I don’t like.
However, it is important to me so I offer it with this little sidestep: I redefine “best” to mean “most important”.
It is the first poem I had published, in a large and ambitious anthology called “The Second Genesis: An Anthology of Contemporary World Poetry”. There were only nine Australians in this huge collection, including the famous Les Murray. There I was, previously unpublished, not long having started to write again, with two poems chosen, “Earth Music” and “Wilpena Pound”. I was pretty chuffed by that and for that alone, “Earth Music” is important.
It is a kind of love song, a celebration of connectedness, starting with the macro, moving to the animal kingdom and finally to human love, in this case Diana and me. That last aspect also makes it important for me.
However, it is important to me so I offer it with this little sidestep: I redefine “best” to mean “most important”.
It is the first poem I had published, in a large and ambitious anthology called “The Second Genesis: An Anthology of Contemporary World Poetry”. There were only nine Australians in this huge collection, including the famous Les Murray. There I was, previously unpublished, not long having started to write again, with two poems chosen, “Earth Music” and “Wilpena Pound”. I was pretty chuffed by that and for that alone, “Earth Music” is important.
It is a kind of love song, a celebration of connectedness, starting with the macro, moving to the animal kingdom and finally to human love, in this case Diana and me. That last aspect also makes it important for me.
A little “earth music” here in this photo of Diana, in the 44th year of our marriage, just after we completed an eight day hike in Western Australia, the Cape to Cape. The flowers are W.A. wildflowers called “leschenaultia”.
Earth Music
An intricate, richly sensual tune
this tactile, perfumed earth sings
and to the song of sun, sea and moon
all creation its own harmony brings.
The lover sun holds earth in his arms,
the insatiable sea caresses the shore,
the night is besotted by the moon’s charms
and everywhere is the cry for more.
Flowers willingly open for honey bees,
clouds are the vaporous water’s embrace,
and with earth and sea the insistent breeze
communes as if face to face.
Thus every creature is entranced
by the music that around them flows
and caught up in this harmony dance
patterns each intuitively knows.
All these are creatures of the dust
caught in earth’s scent and song,
singing and dancing in the way they must
patterns of desire to which they belong.
Whether in stealth, danger or death,
in grace, beauty or fluttering need,
in savagery or urgent stress,
all play in earth’s rich symphony of seed.
So you and I, who smell the perfumed air,
are caught and enfolded by this song
and to its great pattern and desire
our lives in close union belong.
The sounds ringing with rich complexity
melody upon melody entwine,
and tenderness, love and fidelity
in its high, clear, pure notes shine.
O my love, I in this great world stand
surrounded by rich music of life,
sustained in spirit, heart, mind and hand
by you – my partner, my joy, my wife.
Earth Music
An intricate, richly sensual tune
this tactile, perfumed earth sings
and to the song of sun, sea and moon
all creation its own harmony brings.
The lover sun holds earth in his arms,
the insatiable sea caresses the shore,
the night is besotted by the moon’s charms
and everywhere is the cry for more.
Flowers willingly open for honey bees,
clouds are the vaporous water’s embrace,
and with earth and sea the insistent breeze
communes as if face to face.
Thus every creature is entranced
by the music that around them flows
and caught up in this harmony dance
patterns each intuitively knows.
All these are creatures of the dust
caught in earth’s scent and song,
singing and dancing in the way they must
patterns of desire to which they belong.
Whether in stealth, danger or death,
in grace, beauty or fluttering need,
in savagery or urgent stress,
all play in earth’s rich symphony of seed.
So you and I, who smell the perfumed air,
are caught and enfolded by this song
and to its great pattern and desire
our lives in close union belong.
The sounds ringing with rich complexity
melody upon melody entwine,
and tenderness, love and fidelity
in its high, clear, pure notes shine.
O my love, I in this great world stand
surrounded by rich music of life,
sustained in spirit, heart, mind and hand
by you – my partner, my joy, my wife.
© 2019 Neil Creighton
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