sound scapes

what do we hear?

what is perceived in the hearing?

how soon after hearing a word
or a sentence or even a random
beep in the air
do we begin formulating some
sort of judgment as to the
nature and meaning of a sound?

while walking yesterday i heard
the PA system at a school
and the playground was completely empty
but the sound of a woman's voice
was making a public declaration
even if the intent was directed specifically
to the young students
a whole neighborhood was required somehow
to hear the directive

almost immediately i was aware
of the sound of the voice
and what it meant
so i began recognizing the tone of
authority
a no nonesense conveyance of
what is thought to be necessary information

in short
it was a command
a statement of requirement
a matter to be taken seriously
at least by the students of one grade
if by no-one else

amplified sound has become the norm
human voices are in effect
synthesized constantly
in the world of the microphone
what we hear is the processed sound
it is even more impossible then
to imagine a poet
finding an authentic voice
unless we reduce the experience
of poetry to merely the written word
engaged upon rather silently
that is
read

just now i spoke on the phone
to a friend travelling in a car
on the freeway talking on his cell phone
i heard micro gaps in the transmission
of his voice
i heard the whir of hiway noise in the background
and i heard his voice and an unnatural shrill quality
produced by what ever mechanism allows
for such communication to take place

twice yesterday i experienced the phenomenon
of a call interupted by a forced or accidental hiatus
an ending whose volition had no bearing on anything
i had decided to do
one moment i was talking coherently
the next moment i was forced to acknowledge
the sound of silence
and then the insistent beeping
or the white noise symphony of no space no time
all this happening in my ear
we are deathly burdened
with manufactured sound

then there is the phenomenon
which has made its way into
colloquial reference
the statement often made
when the lives of people
are somehow meant to converge:
"were your ears ringing?"
meant to suggest somehow
that a conversation with you as
the subject
was recently taking place
being had
as it were

these days
a ringing in your ear is
more difficult to explain
it could be anything
from actual directed sound waves
emanating from a radio tower
a sudden rise in blood pressure
a distant almost inaudible alarm
a phone off the hook
a memory of sirens in the night
a friend's guitar amplifier
left on for weeks
a dream from which one strives
to awake

the planet is awhir with manmade and processed
sound

police state symphony

yesterday i heard silence
but today is the day
of the big statewide alarm sounding
at precisely 1:45 pm today
every disaster alarm in the state
will blow at the same time
a stockhausian moment
a chord
resounding in harmony
however crude and distorted
with solo intentional reverberations
in every little town in the whole damn state

a sound for all the birds to hear
a sound for serious reflection
a sound with undeniable meaning
a sound that desires to be heard
a moaning troubling sound
what is the sound of ten thousand sirens
humming
a long orgasmic sound of horror
immanent horror the worst possible thing
is about to happen
and maybe if you hear this sound
you will have time to survive
and return to primitive modes of existence
maybe just maybe you will be one
who does not succumb to the evil force

and you will
walk along the

road

new dimensions in the genre of irritainment

today in minnesota and wisconsin
and on other days soon
in all the states
there will be a sonic event
at precisely the same moment
all the communities in the state
will sound their loud warning systems
which help to alert the citizens
of impending disaster

literally thousands of horns going off
at the same time all over the state

would it be possible to somehow "hear"
this CHORD to be perched a mile in the air
and actually "hear" the chord
for every horn will be somewhat different
in timbre no doubt

what strange and idiotic music making
we are about
in the name of homeland security

when you hear the sound ....people
get ready to
encounter the worst possible tragedy
and don't say you weren't warned!!

is it a collective sound that could
somehow be recorded!!!???

is it the sound that says
boy
WE ARE REALLY F**KED NOW!???

april is the coolest month

not the coldest
as march in the north was cold
but cool
breezes that do not kill
sunlight giving poets
a taste of earth's elixir
poets singing then with new birds
cool melodies
cool jazz
urging buds to embolden branches
emergent green
and flesh apparent in the young souls
eager for love for hope

the cruelties of winter
cannot be ignored
the devastations are real
like the ice is real

sing then o word slingers
sing the song of KORA
kora rising from the dens of hades
kora smiling through the muck
of hell
her cool murmurous warbles
waft in the morning winds
yanking ice from shores
mixing fresh mud where once
only hardened ice reigned

snap your fingers tap your toes
give your heart to the music
to the blade that grows
april is the coolest month

rumsfeld epistemology

There are known knowns.
These are things we know that we know.
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
There are things that we know we don't know.
But there are also unknown unknowns.
These are things we don't know we don't know.

I guess the only remaining epistemological question would be -
' how do we know we don't know what we don't know?'

this little philosophical diversion was stated
in response to questions about the atrocities
at Abu Graib

it highlights for me the gulf
between those who wield power
and those who suffer at the hands
of those who wield power

violence writes its own policy
and thus 'truth' is negotiable

any news of man's inhumanity
must turn the conscious soul
inward
to reflect upon complicity

the poetry of finance

there are a lot of dead carcasses on the road
and the vultures are out sniffing
this is the cycle of wall street
when bubbles crash you get the value guys
who come in and say
this thing is cheap

- andy kessler