Writing exercise from En Plein Air writing workshop,
led by Kathe Izzo, on the grounds of Olana, Hudson, NY, Saturday morning

***

Listen to the sound of the earth turning -- Yoko Ono

***

The sound is silent
like the steady revolution
around and around of a turntable
a record centered on the stationary pin
but the needle not yet carefully set at the edge
of the beginning of the piece of music
preceded by faint static crackles

So the earth, like this maternal, enabling phonograph
spins ever so slowly and silently in steady impalpable motion
while all sorts of surface sounds surface
the thrum of heavy bulldozing machinery moving chunks
of the steadily moving earth
the tiptoeing through dry brush, causing a rustling
of a pair of mated geese
who serenely step into the water & silently set afloat
bird calls of various kinds
warbling virtuosic tweets
pensive occasional chirps

I can't hear the sound of the earth move
it's one of those 'sideways' gifts that are simply there
the canvas or backdrop
of all else that goes on, sonically, palpably
on this warm sunlit morning
infrared light heating my jeans
so that my thighs feel pleasantly warm

Maybe it's very very loud and furiously noisy on the Sun
as it burns and boils and erupts in gaseous plumes and quakes

but here it's just placid, soundless light
beaming down on a steadily revolving
from a distance silent
teeming Earth