A Delicate Balance

Painting by Rick Mobbs

Alex Shapiro posted a wonderful pic of a hunk of driftwood, shaped like a stubby surfboard, with five rocks balanced on top of it as it stuck out of the sand on a beach there on her beloved San Juan island--five flat rocks balanced perfectly from large to small. She entitled her posting, ONWARD AND UPWARD, and scored it with a bit of her jazz compostion, A DELICATE BALANCE. Doug Palmer made a very special comment for it, and I want to share it.

Glenn

A DELICATE BALANCE

These sort
of rock art pieces
always seem musical
to me.

Somehow
I imagine
that the rocks would
sound out tones
if struck.
Or that they
are chuckling
among themselves.
Or singing
as the river
provides backup.

Yours seems
to be calling out
to the Canadian ones;
as if all the rocks
in the world
are connected
by a ethereal vibrational frequency
that only lunatics
like me
can perceive.

I mean
think of
a crystal set radio.
The crystal vibrates,
the radio amplifies
and,”come in Rangoon”
Or the caves
that have
the musical stalactites.
Or Lelavision’s rock xylophone;
(lithophone, I guess.

Doug Palmer June 2008