The bell tolls.

The jarring, percussive strike dies quickly.
Hanging on, a deep and pulsing reverberation
With high, crisp overtones,
Fading.
Slowly fading to...

(nothing)

Sound
Amplified – constrained –
Can be sculpted into an awesome destructive force
Capable of splitting ear drums
And shattering marble columns.

Focused waves to pierce
The very structure of physical.
Tones and overtones the untangling of atoms.
As testament –
The chunked and powdered walls of Jericho.

The twined reverberations of the Chinese gong
Meld us with aligned dimensions,
Ushering moments of
Introduction and grand vision.
Or, perhaps, it’s the gong’s
Splash and tone-descending ebb
That entangle our minds to believe it so.

As our attentions are conscripted by
The awesome and terrible potentials
Of the thing we know as “sound,”

In the choir loft
Above the baptistery,
In a church
On Lincoln Square,
The children of a choir sing softly.
Their harmony beckons and enchants.




Resonant Perception
© Mark Pearce 2006


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