sprechgesang

if I should tune my mouth
to kiss the cadences
of the senses
if I turned my attention
to the intonation
of the intention
that arrives through pitch
without perfection

my voice
would ring out in its humanity
above
the terminology
the notation and inflection
of the music
of the different spheres
and frameworks
of figures of speech
like meaning in a dream
in which
instrumentation
tells only half the symphony

© BH. 2026

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Heard it on the radio. Sprechgesang – speech-singing. Well, I like to read this stuff out loud to folk, so I thought, ‘Is that what it’s about?’.

Rhythm and cadence, the ways words sing without precise tonality: that seems to be important.

And I’m not a singer. I have a voice that croaks, singing-wise. But the way words can resonate, that’s a different song altogether. A song I can sing.

So here it is…

More about this - see 'sprechstimme'…