Campfire Music  

Come on
let's gather around the fire
       Get out your instruments
       Bring your flutes and guitars
    Tune up your dulcimers and mandolins
and let's stay up all night singing poems to the stars

Watch the sky growing dark
    with the shadow of Dreamtime
as the glow from the fire flickers on our faces
Hear the wind whispering secrets to the forest
    in a growing chorus of nocturnal voices

Listen to the lunatic howling of coyotes
    lamenting their canine blues to the moon
        to the primal amphibian song of the frogs
            and the distant maniacal laughter of loons

Now gaze deeply into the hypnotic fire
Focus your consciousness into the flames
    Allow the music to loosen your body
Let the trance of the fire inspire your weird brains

Let your voice rise with the heat of the fire
like a spiral of smoke hovering on a waft of air
    let it waver as it catches a drift of wind
        and linger a moment
            'til it disappears

Then catch the groove of the music again
    pick up the rhythm and turn it around
intone each drawn out vowel with a full breath
from the bottom of your heart to the top of your skull

And when the last smouldering embers sputter and smoke
    and the sky glows with the weird purple light of dawn
        as the mist rises up from the primordial slough
            let's blow our flutes to the birds
                to help welcome the sun

© 2006 Gary Lee