
Songs are Thoughts: Poems of the Inuit edited by Neil Philip and illustrated by Maryclare Foa (Orchard Books, New York, 1995). (*)
Songs
are thoughts, sung out with the breath when people are moved by great
forces and ordinary speech no longer suffices. Man is moved just like
the ice floe sailing here and there out in the current. His thoughts are
driven by a flowing force when he feels joy, when he feels fear, when
he feels sorrow. Thoughts can wash over him like a flood, making his
breath come in gasps and his heart throb. Something like an abatement in
the weather will keep him thawed up. And then it will happen that we,
who think we are small, will feel still smaller. And we will fear to use
words. When the words we want to use shoot up of themselves - we get a
new song.
— Orpingalik, Inuit poet and shamanI have a new song and I am learning to sing it. Sing the song given to you.
(thanks to Parabola Newsletter for the above image and quote)
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