Some sample text scores
Silos
Stand in the center and look up:
squinting out of the dark at the sharp sunbeam.
Listen until you are still.
Listen through the concrete to the outside:
a speedboat, a cicada, a Doberman, a hornet, a lawnmower.
Listen to them come back, edges filed off, awash, blurry.
Make a sound and look up:
Hear it leap up and float back to you, ringing, growing a tail.
Repeat this sound, doubling back and interfering with itself.
Sustain this ringing as long as you can.
If you play hard enough, the rust will crumble and fall in a powder.
Advised: goggles.
Buffalo, 8.28.16, for Sarah
Déjà vu
Listen until you are still.
Find your breathing: slow, deep, fast, shallow, erratic.
Find a first sound.
Find a larger sound.
Find a still larger sound.
Find a smaller sound.
Find a faster sound.
Find a still faster sound.
Find a slower sound.
Find a louder sound.
Find a still louder sound.
Find a softer sound.
Go in reverse: softer, softer still, then louder, etc.
You may have the feeling you have done this before,
or at least something similar.
Louisville, 9.3.16
Meeting House
Listen until you are still.
Listen to a neighbor.
When you are ready,
Make sound to support them.
Listen to a neighbor.
When you are ready,
Make sound to suppress them.
Ignore a neighbor.
Baileys Harbor, 12.31.16
Growth
Listen until you are still.
Make a single sound, any kind.
Listen intently inside this sound.
Make the sound again,
The same, but place your focus on one feature of this sound.
Make the sound again, emphasizing this feature.
Make the sound again, heightening this feature.
Make the sound again, expanding this feature.
Make the sound again, exaggerating this feature.
Continue again and again.
You notice this sound becoming garish, monstrous, vicious.
Is this what you want? need? hope? fear?
The problem is not with the sound.
Birmingham, 9.8.16