I like the notion of noting birds' wings as a cue for cheering. And the lines "more wings than a hospital" and "the bench broiling pigeons" were quite magical. It seems appropriate that the flapping of wings is a relatively silent act, and the imagery is silent as well - a loon over water. There's something dissonant about clapping as a form of celebration. In Navajo culture, clapping represented sending away something undesirable. "Cheering", I was taught back in 2017, was done by nodding heads in celebration. A common theme of yours is nature and how it aligns and opposes our societal habits, and the practices of indigenous people often influence a lot of thought in your poetry in its opposition to colonialism, so it felt appropriate to mention my (very limited) knowledge of Navajo performances/celebration.
Thanks, Mark. That's a rich addition! Clapping really is an odd mode of celebration.
I'm having this image now of hands being a collective voice and, therefore, easier to blend, whereas the human voice is more individual. A little hand chorus, if you will.
"And then, suddenly, just when the colors and outlines settle at last to their various duties -- smiling, frivolous duties -- some knob is touched and a torrent of sounds comes to life: voices speaking all together, a walnut cracked, the click of a nutcracker carelessly passed, thirty human hearts drowning mine with their regular beats; the sough and sigh of a thousand trees, the local concord of loud summer birds, and, beyond the river, behind the rhythmic trees, the confused and enthusiastic hullabaloo of bathing young villagers, like a background of wild applause."
I like the notion of noting birds' wings as a cue for cheering. And the lines "more wings than a hospital" and "the bench broiling pigeons" were quite magical. It seems appropriate that the flapping of wings is a relatively silent act, and the imagery is silent as well - a loon over water. There's something dissonant about clapping as a form of celebration. In Navajo culture, clapping represented sending away something undesirable. "Cheering", I was taught back in 2017, was done by nodding heads in celebration. A common theme of yours is nature and how it aligns and opposes our societal habits, and the practices of indigenous people often influence a lot of thought in your poetry in its opposition to colonialism, so it felt appropriate to mention my (very limited) knowledge of Navajo performances/celebration.
Thanks, Mark. That's a rich addition! Clapping really is an odd mode of celebration.
I'm having this image now of hands being a collective voice and, therefore, easier to blend, whereas the human voice is more individual. A little hand chorus, if you will.
It makes me wonder clapping came from... found this article (https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/a-brief-history-of-applause-the-big-data-of-the-ancient-world/274014/) as a response which opens with this great line from Nabakov:
"And then, suddenly, just when the colors and outlines settle at last to their various duties -- smiling, frivolous duties -- some knob is touched and a torrent of sounds comes to life: voices speaking all together, a walnut cracked, the click of a nutcracker carelessly passed, thirty human hearts drowning mine with their regular beats; the sough and sigh of a thousand trees, the local concord of loud summer birds, and, beyond the river, behind the rhythmic trees, the confused and enthusiastic hullabaloo of bathing young villagers, like a background of wild applause."