Thursday, December 24, 2015

Neanderthal Bone-Flute Music


When making a daily blog, save everything! You never know when some
small bit out of the past might come in handy. How does this relate to tonight's
poem? I can almost hear you asking. Ah , , ,
This is an iPhone photo from three phones ago,
(Stuff happens!) (One forgets how one made this rainbow.)


A SHORT HISTORY OF SUBLIME MOMENTS ON HOLD

Press one if you'd like to speak to Attila the Hun.
Press two if your Jacuzzi is filled with eels.
Press three if bitten by an animal you teased while it was eating.
Press four if being heartsore dulls you to the delights of this world.
Press five to put continents between you and a thriving former love.
Press six if your whiskey "fix" (that floaty limbo following on the          heels of your initial sip) is the high point of your day.
Press seven to hear actor Kevin Bacon explain the limbic system.
Press eight to be connected to an invertebrate.
Press nine to explore origins of the phrase "time out of mind."
Press ten to listen to Neanderthal bone-flute music (again.)

Amy Gerstler       (born 1956)

SCATTERED AT SEA, Penguin, 2015, page 36.

Amy Gerstler has published a LOT and gotten a lot of recognition.
The idea of this poem is delightful, I think. Some people might ask if it is really a poem. (I have a grandson who would surely disapprove. He stands for rhyming and metrics!)

To me, in a way, it is a pattern for a sort of poem I like. There are several poetic ways to assemble disparate items. This poet has observed the automated foolishness we may find ourselves involved in--when we had hoped to reach a HUMAN BEING! A SENTIENT MEMBER OF OUR OWN SPECIES, WHO SPEAKS OUR OWN PARTICULAR LANGUAGE CLEARLY!!

Write a list poem of ten items with a governing concept. You will have to invent the concept as part of your task. Allow yourself to be a little silly, or very, very serious. This might be a good time for some sort of word-play or sound-play. If you have time, feel a little sorry that the notation for music had not been invented (or indeed had much of any notation) and Neanderthal flute-music is most probably lost to us.


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