"La Sona de la Mar," this week's poem, is a summing up of my time spent living in Chiapas and traveling through Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. It's a summing of political realities and spiritual revelations. The original version of the poem went like this:
La sona de la mar es silencio
La luz de la luna
sobre el aqua
es un camino a infinidad
Whenever you find yourself using the word "infinity" in a poem, it's time for a rewrite. Even if it's in Spanish.
The final version (mostly in English) is from The Moon Cracks Open and contains what I think may be the wisest line I've ever written: "What is the soul if not the sum of the flights of a thousand birds." I think that line contains my entire religious system.
The version heard in this episode is from a performance I did at Mike Cloud Devine's "Main Street Show" in Livingston, Montana. A great series that features music, poetry, comedy and improv. Something to catch if you're in the area at the right time.
The music is the song "Sarawak" from Ancestry by Trevor Watts and Jamie Harris. This is a CD that a friend passed along to me a while back, and I've been wanting to feature a song from it since. It's on the Entropy Stereo label, which is a gem for lovers of experimental, improvisational jazz and world music.
Trevor writes that his latest release is The Deep Blue on Berlin's Jazzwerkstatt label. And that he will be coming to the states in February with a performance at William Paterson University in New Jersey on the 14th. They may add a few more shows -- check his MySpace page to find out more.
Listen to the episode here:
reportfromthemountains15.mp3
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