Music

What is the source
of music,
where did rhythm and song
have their birth?
Was it the thunder of herds
that mammoth bones copied,
echoing and invoking their percussion
on the tight skin of earth?
Or was it the beat of heart
that fed the tempo
and was lifted itself in return,
a feedback loop of vibration
between bone and body
until the two became one instrument,
dancing the notes of a tune?

Are the ordered ranks of concert audience
that seem so quiet, so still,
an integral part of the orchestra,
playing the melody in each cell,
beating the time with their blood
while harmonies frisson
their skin?

Music, the art
of the Muses,
carrying inspiration on the air
like thistledown
so we each can hear
the acoustics of words,
or the meter of leaves blown by wind.
Music is a listening art
that weaves its timbre and texture
into the day’s creases.


©Jane Upchurch
www.janeupchurch.co.uk