Music to Wake the Dead

Orpheus to Eurydice, overheard.

You were tired of tired imitation, wanted something real. Only the unreasonable would do. Okay, I said, and tuned the strings at the joint in the forked paths, from which one would lead home and the other to a forever road. Let me play you a burning thornbush. Your mother floats halfway between the bed and the ceiling in your sleep. We love a riddle, and the ones we can’t solve tend to linger, like the notes of the last dance, like the earth ringing now in my ears.

***

Inspired by a comment that director Andrey Tarkovsky makes in Sculpting in Time. Paraphrasing Paul Valéry, he notes how “the real is expressed most immanently through the absurd.” The last line is adapted from images in Arseny Tarkovsky’s poem “Eurydice.”

Author: Stacey C. Johnson

I keep watch and listen, mostly in dark places.

2 thoughts on “Music to Wake the Dead”

  1. KatMorski – Rapid River, MI – Kathryn lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, works as a freelance communicator, writes songs, poems and stories, photographs nature compulsively, and enjoys the company of her husband Steven, their two grown children and their growing families, and a large garden. She performs with daughter Caitlin and son Brian as 'SKI, a group that "folk 'n' rocks"!
    KatMorski says:

    The things you can’t play are the ones most worth playing. “..the earth ringing now in my ears..” And always tune first!

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

Discover more from Breadcrumbs

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Exit mobile version
%%footer%%