A Whole Country Stilling to Hear its Own Breath: Cecile Forman

March 26, 2020 Kate Belew with Cecile Forman (San Francisco)

I whisper and wait across a country -

For the echo to breathe back carrying

I want a word that is like confusion but not confusion

Addled, Garbled, Bewilderment

So what happens next this shouldering of breath

Yes, a whole country stilling to hear its own breath

And opposite of tambourine

the long slow pull of the archer on the cello's strings

Imagine we pull slow together

The oars of the two eyed-skiff

And what would be the water?

Well, from the source of all things alive

Let's ladle from there

Urns and bottles and flasks

We drink from that cup

Yes that cup etched with all our names, various and numerous

What language do we speak together 

The wondrous gibberish of Babel

and the kind of ecstatic waving from coast to coast, hello I

am here. Irrepressible breathing, shouting, gesticulating!

I was never this noisy in my past life. 

Yes but then, we drank from the same cup