Undersong
Below the stave,
or higher than the skylark’s sweetest pitch
inaudible
a song of glacial moraine, residue
long ago left
rocks rolled from mountain tops
now embedded deep, on clay in lumps
the land soft folding, hillocks, tumps
valleys and foothills, patchwork cover spread
before the Pyrenees.
A melody in wind, the Marin, Tramontane
south from the sea or chilled over mountains, rock and snow
whistled, whispered through the trees
across the ochre earth, or swished
where dew ponds glint and wink
an air in Occitan, this land of Oc not Oil
before the French came conquering;
and here the people planted, grew
belonging, their terroir.
Song of the landscape, sunflowers, cypress
heard in the heart, the silent murmur
undersong.
15th March 2021 Hounoux
L'Occitane (my indulgent treat) refers to 'women of Occitania' and a 'symbol of womens relationship with beauty and with nature'. I find your poem such an appreciation and tribute to your dearly loved landscape and all it shows and holds within. Over the years with your photos, art and visits I am so fortunate to have a memory of that view etched in my mind another a place to go in my imaginary travel. Framing it as music and going deep into Mother Earth, a woman touch Sally. I just googled Troubador going back in time into the history of the landscape took me and discovered another new word 'troubairitz' a female troubadour. There you are, another title! Music, art, poetry woman xx
ReplyDeleteWell I didn’t know about meaning of L’Occitane’ but had wondered why obviously feminine form of the adjective. Very lovely explanation. In the prog we watched with Ophelia Redpath in N Wales, she or someone on prog used the word Undersong. Fancy a troubaritz!
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