Hey, Hey, what’s that sound, everybody look wants going down
-
Buffalo Springfield
i thought it a faint
murmur a low indistinct
but often continuous
sound
a soft
staccato sound emanating
pulsating from some innate
spirituality that began in
some dark dank
neolithic
cave
it is the sweet
hurdy-gurdy sound
of the new millennium
gypsy poet tap dancing
to a new religion
poetry in the
American
Language
not
some 2000 year
old dead language
but the blue bird of
hippiness in your
own backyard
12 bar blues
American
Language
shhh
what’s that sound
was that the nocturnal song of a nightingale
it’s only old man
Apollinaire the surrealist
junkie and if your real quiet
& stand in the right light
he will steal the breath
from the night a trick
he learned from
Merlin
did you hear that
did I hear a meadowlark sing
it’s only old man Eliot & that
hipster Kerouac piping on a
boatswain pipe reading
tarot cards in a cheap
motel Eliot dealt me
the hanged man I
passed the
Phoenician
sailor on to
Jack
shhh
i thought i heard a whippoorwill
hush
it’s only old man Whitman
warbling in the leaves
singing the body
electric
shhh
do you hear that sound
it’s the bricklayers poet song
& the housewives poet song
& the coffeehouse poet song
& i hear the transcendental chants
of the grand masters poet song
& i hear the hip hop jazz men poet song
& I hear the cowboys poet song
& i hear the purple mountain majesty poet song
& i hear the Mennonite women walking
alone in her garden poet song
hey, hey, what’s that sound
I hear
America
singing
I hear
America
singing
I hear
America
singing
© William Sovern
