My life goes on in endless song
Above earth’s lamentations,
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation……
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear its music ringing,
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?
It’s February 10 and I’ve written an American Sentence every single day this year. Forty sentences + one more today. With a bit of a trail behind me now I am starting to imagine a project that may evolve from here, but before I go further……
I’ve been increasingly uncomfortable calling my daily sentence work “American Sentences” because, while they are indeed 17 syllable sentences (a sort of American haiku), my work doesn’t really carry the poetic sensibilities that I understand the label to imply. So if they are not American Sentences, what are they?
John Paul Lederach speaks of haiku as contemplative practice and I find the way he describes a haiku attitude to be similar to the way I have experienced my daily sentence writing — prepare yourself to be touched by beauty, the noticing of the haiku moment is the aha when the world is revealed for what it is…
I started this project trying to employ the form of an American Sentence and I am going to let that particular idea go now. But I plan to continue writing a daily sentence, tapping into Lederach’s haiku attitude. I’m also going to keep the structure of a syllable count. To find the words to fit a thought to 17 beats is to pay attention and to listen. For now, this practice helps me tune to the rhythms of my life.
It helps me hear the music.