ODE TO THE EAR

“The ear, in ancient cultures, was associated with the conch shell, which also resembles the gateway to the female reproductive organs. The ear is feminine and soul-like because of its receptive, deep, interior, mysterious qualities” (Paul 8). Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis, a French medical doctor and philosopher, discovered that learning problems often stem from listening problems. The voice can reflect the ear’s ability to hear, a phenomenon known as the Tomatis Effect (Paul 209). Tomatis found that voice only contains harmonics the ear is likely to hear. When working with factory employees

who had poor speech articulation and opera singers whose own voices had damaged their hearing he, found that there is a way to bring the ear back into homeostasis. There is even a method of simulating sounds similar to those we hear in the womb in order to ground hearing to an infant state. Music like that of Mozart or Gregorian chants have charging sounds that “nourish” the brain with a large range of frequencies, hence a greater number of vibrations (Gaynor 95). These rhythms reflect own physiological rhythms when we are in calm relaxed states.

The ear also is responsible for informing the brain and body, as well as our ability to balance—managing our sense of equilibrium. “It is the only human sense organ able to perceive both numerical quantity and numerical value. For instance, not only can the ear recognize numerical proportions in music, as in the octave I:2 or the fifth 2:3; but at the same time it can hear values that it perceives as specific notes: C,G,F, and so on. In other words, the element of sensing (the tone) is fused with the element of thinking (the numerical proportion.)” (Paul 8). The ear is a primary organ for multiple physical, emotional, and neurological development responses.

As a poet I am interested in the essential sound of poetry—the resonance of its words in the body, how it echoes in the cavities of our souls and how the words haunt us as our lives revolve. We encounter each new situation, sometimes with a lingering message and a recurring rhythm in our individual heartbeats, drawing us toward the poetry of others—our bodies in conversation. Our lives drafted and revised and sometimes sung.

Is language just for conveying ideas or does the sound count? Can it create a feeling within your being that you could not possibly declare in everyday speech? Often some say “There are no words to explain.” or “A picture is worth a thousand words.” However, a painting or photograph may just be another frequency of vibrations that our eyes receive in the form of light wavelengths, but the depiction of colors composed is synonymous to the linking of iambs in a poem. The relation of space to substance and composition to thought is relative. Poetry enables us to use language in an unconventional way and break through everyday speech or the conditioned ways of writing in order to paint with words. We could analyze a painting and ask, “what is the meaning of the relationship between this object in the foreground and that in the background and what is the purpose of this choice of palette or why this choice of medium?” But these questions sometimes take us farther away from what is initially felt. Or perhaps the feeling deepens when we investigate the smaller movements within a work—recognizing brushstrokes or noticing Jackson Pollock’s frantic handprints buried under splatters of paint.

“A poem comes to us first as speech, on sound waves that register as barometric changes against the drums and gauges of the ear, an apparatus so sensitive it takes notice if the pressure against it varies by 1 part in 10 billion. Johann Gottfriend von Herder said, ‘A breath of the mouth becomes a picture of the world...everything that man has ever thought and willed depends on a moving breath of air’” (152 Nims).


And the breath is both the sustainer and impetus behind each action and movement—the act of birth, speech, experience of the natural world. It determines the difference between feeling small and spacious. When breath is shallow and lung capacity decreases, the world immediately shrinks and our existence loses significance. It marks the end of life in our bodies. The materials and the words we leave behind make a liaison with the earth and all of its surrounding elements. Whether in thought, written or spoken, the record of our poetry can resonate into the future as its sounds carry a life of its own.




Sources


Blasing, Mutlu Konuk. Lyric Poetry: the pain and the pleasure of words. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c2007.


Coulson, Michael. Teach Yourself Sanskrit. Chicago: McGraw Hill, 2006.


Devavani The Language of the Gods: A collection of essays, articles, and quotes on Sanskrit. New York: The American Sanskrit Institute.


Gaynor, Mitchell L. M.D. Sounds of Healing: A Physician Reveals the Therapeutic Power of Sound, Voice, and Music. New York: Broadway Books, 1999.


Kenny, Molly, M.S. C.C.C.-S.L.P., C.Y.T., Raphael Bernier, Ph.C., and Carey DeMartini, M.A. “Chant and Be Happy: The Effects of Chanting on Respiratory Function and General Well-Being in Individuals Diagnosed with Depression.” International Journal of Yoga Therapy, No. 15 (2005): 61-64.


Khan, Hazrat Inayat. The Music of Life: The Inner Nature and Effects of Sound. New Lebanon: Omega Publications, 2005.


Manorama, “Apah: The fluidity of life” (workshop, Sankalpah Yoga, NY, NY, February10, 2009).


--. “Fundamentals of Yoga.” (workshop, Virayoga, NY, NY, February 24, 2009).


--. “Chant to Kundalini, Feel Pulsation.” (workshop, Lucky Lotus, NY, NY, March 04, 2009).


--. “Vishuddha Chakra & Saraswati Ma/ Saraswati Devi: Sanskrit Language of Vibration, Virayoga, NY, NY, March 24, 2009).


Matthews, P.H. Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.


Mishra, Ramamurti S. M.D. Nada Yoga: The Science, Psychology & Philosophy of Anahata Nada Yoga, 3rd ed. New York: Baba Bhagavandas, 2007.


Nims, John Frederick and David Mason. Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry, 4th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1999.


Paul, Russill. The Yoga of Sound: Tapping the Hidden Power of Music and Chant. Novato: New World Library, 2004.


Perrine, Laurence and Thomas R. Arp. Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry, 8th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1991.