Music Poem by Long Tooth

All music is relational
Even if the instrument itself is unconscious:
Like tree leaves in a breeze
Telegraph their praise in God's presence,
Dot and dash an earthy hymn;
Like an earthquake whose rumblings
Remind you that in geological time
All that we think of as solid and whole
Shares water's properties;
Even mountains bend the knee;
What was tight winds down, relaxes,
Like a German music box,
Becomes a cosmic 'OM' at last;
Only whales, those connoisseurs
Of deep and low, perhaps can hear.

Our human ears span such a narrow range,
Need scientific augmentation to hear
Last ringing reverberations of 'Big Bang.'
For sound is not just vibrating air,
Our eyes too have their limits
As invisible stars also play their role
And human senses discover new symphonies
In the music of the spheres.
For doesn't vision inflame the heart as well
As guitarist strums and fingers dance on ivory?
Have you never seen a string's exertions,
Or felt invisible waves of tympani?
Yes, even bowels play a role!

And, oh, the stories told in sound alone
Can find their poetry in dance,
A music of another kind,
A kinetic vision of the soul itself.
Whatever touches heart is music,
Cannot be missed, only denied,
Oh, do not ask for whom God sings,
He always sings your song.


Long Tooth
April 21,2016