I listen to quite a lot of music. Not much of it feels rooted or even connected to Earthly life. I’m beginning to wonder if many of our problems stem from an inability to celebrate what is life-affirming. Maybe we need an aesthetic of the hearth and home, of the constant and congenial and communitarian. Maybe we need to not merely find beauty in quotidian life, but focus on it, singularly and steadfastly. Maybe we need to sing out in power and wonder each and every day that nothing happens that takes life from us. And maybe for all that we need new songs…
unsound songs
we sing the wrong stories songs of blood and sword bones bleached on battlefields rings and wraiths illusion and illusory fate love lost to crossed stars horns herald heroes boasts brayed of belligerent lords flutes trilling fabled flights of fancy strange bird song from no forest known what of the majesty of the morning star the bravery of ash blossoms what of the grandeur of the autumn garden the mystery of each miraculous seed give me skies of starlight give me rainbows and ephemeral aurora give me the captivating splendor of silent snow all in swelling song sing to me of warm bread of infant heads soft with sleep sing to me of full bellies joyfully awakening to daily love sing to me of mundane magic the web of wonder that binds the world what is the death of a hero or the sacrifice of the chosen one just one more victory for those who would unmake life we have given them too much glory it is time for new songs…
©Elizabeth Anker 2022
By My Solitary Hearth 