Category Archives: Poetry

This is the third version of a poem I wrote for Write Out, using found sounds from the National Park Service sound site. The first version was a text poem, with links to sounds. The second version was a podcast, with my voice layered with the sounds. This final version is a digital poem, with image and sound and voice.

What I have been trying to get at is how to best incorporate sound with a poem. While this version is the most visually pleasing, I admit that I sort of like the podcast — the version of just voice and sound — the best, for it forces you to imagine the animals and scenery. Here, I show you the image from the sound files.

Which version do you like?

Peace (in poems),
Kevin

The other day, I use some found sounds from the National Park Service website to inspire a poem I called “Hiking the Wild Mind.”

But I didn’t feel satisfied with it in that version. It was text with links to the sounds. What I wanted to do was have the poems and the sounds together, as a podcast.

So this second version — an audio poem —  is all about sound — of my voice mixed with the landscape.

I’ll be doing one more variation of the poem in the next day or two.

Peace (sounding out),
Kevin

 

 

 

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:

• Rain
• Stream
• Bighorn Ram
• Coyotes
• Spotted Bat
• U’au (Hawaiian petrel)
• Pig Frog
• Dawn Chorus