The Borders of Song

Al Fine ~ liberamente

The borders of song
Like air in water
Like water in air
Change continually,
Rising like a bubble
To the surface of an ocean
Or falling like a drop of rain.
Formed and constrained
Still forming and reforming,
Straining to take shape
For ever till the last release:
The bubble burst, the raindrop rained,
Air in air or water joining water
Like rivers on the ground.

© BH 2015

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This is fragment of something longer, more darkly musical, or musically dark. It's really to do with boundaries: I’ve been fascinated for a long time by the nature of such things.

A very long time ago, in a Chemistry class, I remember learning about flames, particularly, the way combustion happens only on the edge of the gas introduced into another. For example, in an atmosphere of hydrogen, a jet of oxygen would burn only where the gas concentrations were right for it. Burning like a flame, except, no big flash or explosion, just a back-to-front modest burning. A flame of air in hydrogen.

Flames, drops and bubbles are products of relationship. Striving for shape makes them what they are. So drops, one thing in another thing, are bubbles by another name.

The longer poem, of which later perhaps, makes more of the musical idea. But that remains to be seen, or heard.