In praise of ancient instruments

Good Morning,

I’ll be teaching a nature writing class in July in Denver, find out more info here.

And now here is our poem for the week. Thank you for your continued interest in and support of my poems.

in a cave in Slovenia

a flute made of a cave bear’s bone was found

they say that this is the oldest known instrument

A 50,000 year old femur pocked with drill holes

made to echo off rock walls

I think on this as I sit down to write

in the cave of my office

and wonder about the song

that was played on that flute

by somebody so far from me

but who also tried to sought to make something sing

then this poem sings through me

and with it

a correction to the findings in the cave

for there is an instrument

much older than this bone

can’t you feel its hum now

in these very words

can’t you feel it now

oh great lyre

oh great drum of flesh

are we not

an instrument too

the most ancient instrument perhaps

do we not also sing and hum and sound

are we not some vessel

for the breath of something

so much larger than us

Alexander

This week beyond the paywall, a discussion on the instruments of our hearts and what to do with them.