Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Laura TrimbleMarch 13, 2025

I thought it was the flute
I wanted to play, but I found
     that wasn’t it, so I tried
the violin next the bassoon
the dulcimer harp
                        but each one
gave out only one tone. So I played
on paints and windows and dough
and socks in a perfect array
on long-fingered carrot peelings
lacing the air like harp strings
in suspension tuned to the sky
and the trash can
                          until I found
I was playing the whole house, its ductwork
ringing every possible range
of whistling hues with a timbre
that rumbled my very foundations.


             Who was it that first decided
for the music in their soul
nothing less would do than a whole entire
building?  its highest sunbeams
and lowest throbbing foundations
and all the rafters between
          resonating with song
so deep you will never hear it played
      only because
                     like the spheres
you have never heard it cease.

The latest from america

Soldiers of Ukraine's 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade fire a rocket toward Russian positions at the front line in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko, File)
It is fair to say that the global tab for addressing the world’s acute humanitarian or ecological needs pales in comparison to the eye-watering amounts governments unabashedly dole out for bombs and bullets.
Kevin ClarkeJune 12, 2025
This week on “Inside the Vatican,” hosts Colleen Dulle and Gerard O’Connell and producer Ricardo da Silva, S.J., answer listener questions about the conclave and the first month of Pope Leo XIV.
Inside the VaticanJune 12, 2025
Abuse experts and survivors express a mix of tentative hopes and low expectations for how Pope Leo might address disciplining abusers, supporting victims and ensuring that the church is a safe environment for all.
Colleen DulleJune 12, 2025
“It literally felt like kidnapping. I saw three of those ‘kidnappings’ happen in the span of 20 minutes.” That is how Angel Mortel described detainments she witnessed outside of a Los Angeles courtroom.
Leilani FuentesJune 12, 2025