word. music. art.

Poet Laureate, W. S. Merwin, might be speaking at Joslyn Art Museum at the end of April. Plans aren't finalized yet. I hope this happens.

In light of this recent news, I decided that the poem to memorize for April should, of course, be a piece by Mr. Merwin. So here it is:

"Air"

by W. S. Merwin

Naturally it is night.

Under the overturned lute with its

One string I am going my way

Which has a strange sound.

This way the dust, that way the dust.

I listen to both sides

But I keep right on.

I remember the leaves sitting in judgement

And then winter.

I remember the rain with its bundle of roads.

The rain taking all its roads.

Nowhere.

Young as I am, old as I am.

I forget tomorrow, the blind man.

I forget the life among the buried windows.

The eyes in the curtains.

The wall

Growing through the immortelles.

I forget the silence

The owner of the smile.

This must be what I wanted to be doing, 

Walking at night between the two deserts, 

Singing

_______

I discovered this through an old, dear friend of mine, Rosalie Miller:

http://www.benoitmaubrey.com/

Benoit Maubrey and his Berlin-based Audio Gruppe build electro-acoustic clothing and suits. These are clothes equipped with loudspeakers, amplifiers, and 257 K samplers that enable them to react directly with their environment by recording live sounds, voices, or instruments in their proximity, and amplifying them as a mobile and multi-acoustic performance. They also wear radio receivers, contact microphones, light sensors and electronic looping devices in order to produce, mix, and multiply their own sounds and compose these as an environmental concert. The performers use rechargeable batteries and/or solar cells, which ensures them complete mobility both indoors and outdoors.

_______

And, finally, 5 of a thousand:

_______

Make a move, make a sound.

Yes to subtlety.