Sounds & Silences

By Brenda Eldridge

Vivid memories prompted by hearing a few stray notes playing sent me wandering through my very rich life to renew my love of particular pieces of music and songs. When I started writing poems, I recognised that, for me, music is like ekphrastic poetry. A composer responds to something and in turn there is my response to the composer. From my own

• Language: English
• Publisher: Debbie Lee
• Release date: Oct 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781761096259

Book preview

Sounds & Silences

SOUNDS & SILENCES

BRENDA ELDRIDGE

Ginninderra Press

Sounds and Silences

ISBN 978 1 76109 625 9

Copyright © text Brenda Eldridge 2023

Cover image: Atul Pandey from Unsplash

All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for permission should be sent to the publisher at the address below.

First published 2023 by

Ginninderra Press

PO Box 3461 Port Adelaide 5015

www.ginninderrapress.com.au

CONTENTS

Sounds & Silences

Acknowledgements

SOUNDS & SILENCES

Ekphrastic Poetry

For too many years

I believed mankind was incapable

of creating anything positive

Throughout history

all around me

was the evidence

that destruction was the thing

we were able to do best

I watched how nature revives

no matter what atrocities

we perform in the name of progress

Gradually I became aware

how important music was to me

all kinds of music

the melodic outpourings of birds

the simplest lullaby calming a fractious child

I noticed how notes deeply reverberating

dancing along the staves

or soaring skyward

expressed the feelings

I could put no name to

What I felt in my heart

and saw in my minds eye

had little to do with what

the composer might have envisioned

Music is ekphrastic poetry

we draw on our own experiences

to understand who we are

who we want to be

Tapestry of Sound

after Mahler, Symphony No. 5 in C Sharp Minor –