An Octave Above Tenor (Spoken Word Poetry)
Channel: MairsandtheMonster
Date: 2012-11-04

The Monster: I think we were discussing why words mean so much to us, and I recalled the first time someone told me my voice was beautiful, which gave rise to this piece of spoken word. There are a lot of wonderful voices in my life :)


Give me your intonations
craft your words in homonyms
expand your diction in synonyms
bring me every last antonym

Your voice
Sound curving over the cavities of mind
each syllable stirring the soulful kind
certain vibrations bring memories they find
and through the data banks of voice I find...

You.

By your voice I know you
short form memory fades
even the face and eyes
but the exact sound of your speech
laughing and sighing and speaking and chastising
I carry to all ends and darknesses

I remember when I was told
my voice was beautiful
years past now
I sing because you said you loved my voice
even if I do not
A throw away compliment
one I hold dear
Tone of voice, a powerful thing

On plane wings and Mazda tires
two weeks, six months no matter
carrying these mental audio files
memory the mp3 player
when I'm far from you -- oceans separate
the days are shorter with your voice as comfort
coming home, nothing has separated us

I loathe forgetting voices in my head
archives of laughter (Anna and Ely and Rey to name a few)
- when I've forgotten a voice, I've forgotten you
(Sometimes I'm even glad for it)
Some need to see their dearest friends daily
I just need to hear your voice slipping over the curvature of my mind
warm and real as your presence itself
voices of customers and coworkers
professors and peers
friends and acquaintances
the intimate and stranger alike

I need to hear your voice to know we're close, still near
when I've forgotten, you're gone
trembling tenor tones
It's your voice, in ranges and octaves and sharps,
staccato, crescendo, pianissimo
pitch perfect, tone deaf, it's yours
and mine to share while I remember it

So give me your voice
in the grey of sunrise, in the dead of night
in passing, in serious, in jest, in kindness
in conversation, in emails, in text, in song,
give me the aural memory of you to carry and comfort
In your speech are the memories
unique as the fingerprints covering my soul
The beautiful ring of the familiar?
Your voice.



Enjoy! Love!