Time Regained
After performing in the hardened heart of cities, he needed to retreat to the forest. The minute he stepped into the dense green, an unusual stillness overcame him. He took out his flute and played to awaken familiar voices. He heard muffled sounds: a flicker, a flutter, the rustling of leaves in the undergrowth, but only individual songs rose. Was it on account of the late hour? Feathered and furry shapes hid furtively behind impassible tree trunks. Eyes half-closed, he recalled how a hamadryad emerged from bark to follow his lead with her aulo’s stirring sound. Back then, unlike Ulysses, he never feared sirens’ songs and was once welcomed on the river bank by a siren, arched like a prow, inviting him to step onto her hollow back. He suddenly felt swept by the current as he was gliding again over the water while combing her long hair with his bow. He knew he was back into his own.
Shouldn't we Listen to Every Plant's Farewell Song?
Each season with its visual and sensorial prompts hones our senses to mark the passing of time. The older we get the more acutely we perceive changes around us that echo our own visible and invisible transformations.
When harsh winds and rains torment flowerbeds, break branches and send furry and feathered animals into hiding we ache as though a sharp gust had penetrated our innermost self, pulling on every joint.
I’ve heard that changes in air-pressure are felt in every tendon, muscle, and scar, causing cells to expand or contract. And if the lack of sunlight affects our propensity for laughter wouldn’t this be true for every root, shrub, limb, and leaf?
And before entering a stage of dormancy, doesn’t every plant tell a different story if we take the time to listen to its farewell song? Like my phalaenopsis orchids who stopped flowering but still require attention till they bloom again.
Hedy Habra is a poet, artist, and essayist. She has authored four poetry collections, most recently, Or Did You Ever See the Other Side? (Press 53, 2023). The Taste of the Earth, winner of the Silver Nautilus Book Award and Honorable Mention for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. Tea in Heliopolis won the Best Book Award and Under Brushstrokes was a finalist for the International Book Award. Her story collection, Flying Carpets, won the Arab American Book Award’s Honorable Mention and was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. Her book of criticism is Mundos alternos y artísticos en Vargas Llosa. A twenty-one-time-nominee for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the net, and recipient of the Nazim Hikmet Award, her multilingual work appears in numerous journals and anthologies. https://www.hedyhabra.com/