creation (how poetry can save the earth): the musical, concept treatment 1

Sounds:
percussion backbeat, in a pulse, with space between: ticky ticky tock tock ticky tickety tick tick tick ticky ticky tock tock ticky tickety tick tick tock

oboes and flutes: high ethereal long slow sounds

clarinet: low slow sounds, pulsing alternating with the oboes and flutes

(Direction: oboe, flute, and clarinet weave around behind the narration, except for the noted percussion pulses)

Narrator, lecture-style, part 1:

in the jam, in the boot of the car, in the boot of the year, near 2012
when all around with arms upraised the mad scramble
clickety split of the roaring furnace of a warming planet
makes us think we've gone to hell in a handbasket,
poetry reminds us that there is all the time in the world

percussion backbeat, in a pulse, with space between: ticky ticky tock tock ticky tickety tick tick tick ticky ticky tock tock ticky tickety tick tick tock

poems dilate time, create nests of leisure and spaciousness
creativity, as in the expansive moments of our most recent expansion
BIG BANG where change happened in milli-jilli-nanoseconds
creativity also can slow us down, into the breath whisper silent
stillness between eye blinks

percussion backbeat, in a pulse, with space between: ticky ticky tock tock ticky tickety tick tick tick ticky ticky tock tock ticky tickety tick tick tock

poems bring us back to our hearts, where we connect
with the infernal heat of all creation
including the guidance from other star peoples
that we are held in cycles beyond our ken
nestled in the nest of earth, woven of feathers and fluff,
a preciousness pervades

percussion backbeat, in a pulse, with space between: ticky ticky tock tock ticky tickety tick tick tick ticky ticky tock tock ticky tickety tick tick tock

by awakening love,
poetry can save the earth
by resuscitating our capacity to care, our earth empathy
poetry can save the earth
by reminding us of what we share,
poetry saves us, to be whole and present, right here,
right now right here right now
[Direction: "right here, right now" continues and threads through percussive interlude]

percussion backbeat, in a pulse, with space between: ticky ticky tock tock ticky tickety tick tick tick ticky ticky tock tock ticky tickety tick tick tock

Because I am a molecule, a cell in the body of Gaia
and poems are like ribbons of DNA, a code of guidance
in how we can proceed to thrive,
poems are part of the earth,
can save the earth, aché!

percussion backbeat, in a pulse - this time with oboes and clarinets also, also with echoes of the last two stanzas, a culminating flash of furling fires of creativity: "right now right here right now" and the words of the last stanza:
ticky ticky tock tock ticky tickety tick tick tick
ticky ticky tock tock ticky tickety tick tick tock

Scooter Cascadia 5-3-11 12:19pm