"So when I tell these children, this is not learning A, B, Cs, this is a spiritual expression of yourself. How do you feel; what do see when you play this? Breathe and let this thing come to life because these will sing the song you want to sing. If you listen, all you are doing is breathing, your fingers are moving and it plays you."
-- Keith Bear, Native American Flute Traditions
Perhaps shadows from tallow candles
darted against lodge walls
and smoke hole peaks like does the
candle flame on this table flickers
in time to the accentuated breaths of
the flute player ...
Perhaps these Hidatsa-Mandan strains
have been heard upon this very land
300 hundred years ago,
perhaps a thousand.
And, perhaps,
the land
needs to hear it again.
ReplyDeleteNice
I was at once taken by Keith Bear's comment, "If you listen, all you are doing is breathing, your fingers are moving and it plays you," for it has parallel in authorship as well; when writers acknowledge that their writing instrument is moreso telling the story, than themselves.
ReplyDeleteYes, WW! I couldn't agree more concerning the writing telling its own story. Many times in the midst of writing, a pause arises, and embedded in it is the certainty that I am just an instrument (even parallel the the music metaphor you use), a conduit if you well, for stories and teachings from other Sources. I certainly experience this over and over in writing "Tears for the Samurai." Thanks for validating these unseen visitations.
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