from National Park Service Sound Gallery
For our Write Out project, Ranger Cris Constantine of the NPS Northeast Regional Office shared out a wonderful page of park resources for teachers, which included a link from the Park Service of collected sounds from various park sites. I soon found myself immersed in the audio. I decided a day of approaching rain was a good day for an imaginary hike in the form of a poem, with embedded audio clips after each stanza. The source link for each audio file is down below. — Kevin
Hiking the Wild Mind
This morning, we heard
the rain fall
after many days
of sun
(audio link)
Stuck inside,
imagine yourself
on a journey
of sound
(audio link)
Eyes closed:
Hike the hills
Sneak behind the rock
of the mountain top
to watch nature
play its terrible games
of BigHornRam collision.
(audio link)
In the distance,
the pack always hunts,
calls, careens into the bush:
coyotes on the prowl.
(audio link)
At night,
another world of
the wilderness
comes alive:
what is it that
flies above you
below the stars?
(audio link)
Again, by day,
the unknown unfurls its wings
sings a song of
the wild edges,
places you have yet
to imagine
(audio link)
And there, beneath your feet,
where the rains have loosened
the earth, where the moisture
has woken up
the sleepy-eyed creatures of the season,
you startle that which startles you
(audio link)
So settle down,
stake a tent,
claim some ground:
listen until the morning
arrives, and wonder if the sun
still follows the stars
(audio link)
Gather up your world
and head back
home.
Peace (in the sounds),
Kevin
PS — Sources via National Park Service Natural Sound Project:
I love this! I’m an author on the NWP Writer’s Council and I often ramble around my local state park . . . watching, listening, breathing. What a fantastic example you have here of incorporating audio into the written word. Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you Jen. I also did a second version, as an audio file, if you are interested.
https://soundcloud.com/dogtrax/hiking-the-wild-mind
Kevin