Cacophony of Quiet

August 6, 2010
Just sitting in the backyard.

                    The sun rounds
the bounds of the trees.

crickets
crickets
crickets
crickets
crickets

whistle
          click
                    trill
twitter
          click
                    trill
chirrup
          click click
                    trill
          trill
trill

hidden frog
                    raspy zipper solo
amplified
                    raspy zipper solo
echoed
                    raspy zipper duet
in the next yard

squirrels
          lustily playing leaping
                              in the pine
piquing
          cross branches          cross branches
                              that crackle crackle complaints

                                                  as they pass

cicadas plug in
warming up with the sun
          the arrival of
          galvanic vibrations
          evolves
          lively revivals
          of vibrant vivace
          vocalizing volumes
          of verve

Big Bang

July 5, 2010
This started as a quick assignment in Creative Writing 238. We were instructed to quickly write a list of sounds, select one, write a descriptive paragraph. I selected "car crash" and wrote what I could remember of sounds from a car crash that I had experienced. Looking for notes to another story, I found it and noticed poetry within the text. All of the lines are pared down from the original. As I arranged the lines into a more poetic form, I saw new meaning in the words. Creation. Thus, the last stanza.


no picture before
the attenuated screeching of rubber on pavement
no visual prior
to the dull, unmetallic
                                             thud
of grillongrill
absence of images preceded
cr unc hin g of g la ss
whOOOOOOOsh
exploded into
temporarily sightless eyes

a chasm of time
interrupting
the normal flow of traffic
darkness turning around
blindly facing a new direction
dust and gas and twilight
intertwining
in the confining atmosphere

stumble out coughing
have i been in an accident?