In the Beginning

Joe Satriani

COME ONE, COME ALL
http://bigtentpoetry.org/2011/01/come-one-come-all-january-14/
We were asked to react to a piece played by the above artist.
 IN THE BEGINNING

In the beginning was the sound.

The only instruments were

The ground upon which water dripped,

The rock against which fingers tapped,

The creak of the branches

One against the other.

Men heard it and were glad.

For rhythm

Was the essence of life itself.

They felt the rhythm within themselves,

And feet began to tap,

Hands to clap,

Fingers to click,

All in time to the rhythm.

Instruments came later.

And the instrument

Most closely recalling

The primitive rhythm

Is the guitar.

For only the guitar reinvents

The primeval accident.

The sharp metallic sound

Of fingers and strings

Interchanging,

Seems elemental and chancy.

The notes are modern,

But, between the notes,

Falls the primitive accident.

Serendipitous sound

Litters the world

In which the Guitarist plays.

*

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THE POWER

Not the Dark Ages!

Nineteen-fifty-three.

A hospital in Darwin.

Australia.

*

A young Aboriginal man lies dying

In great agony.

No injuries,

No bruising,

No disease.

*

The young man tells authorities

That he is the victim

Of a 'singing'.

The Bone has been pointed

And he is bound to die.

So he does.

*

No amount of modern medicine,

No amount of supportive care

Could have saved him.

For someone had

Pointed the Bone.

*

Accused of incest

He had fled his tribe.

But a Ritual Killer had pursued him

With The Bone.

*

The Elder had gone down on one knee

Before him.

He had frozen with fear.

It was as though

He were being forced to sip poison!

*

He was a victim of

The Power.

*

Not the power of

The Bone,

But the power of Auto-Suggestion.

*