Focused on the Small Sounds

Hermann Hesse observed that “whoever has learned how to listen to trees…wants to be nothing except what he is.”

Changed by Their Sounds

Aspens, The Small Sounds of Whispering Trees

My childhood was punctuated with careful, attentive listening. No, not every day, but when I turned off my attention to common, familiar sounds around me and focused on the small, seemingly insignificant notes, different kinds of music were heard. One day walking thistles in our cornfield with my grandfather Nanny he told me to stop and listen. Nothing was heard at first but soon a soft clapping crescendo like raccoons playing tiny cymbals enveloped me. In a hushed voice, Nanny said it was the sound of corn growing–growing fast.

At first I didn’t believe it. But standing amidst rows of six foot green giants the rhythm of tiny twigs being snapped was undeniable and inviting. My face tightened and then opened like I was possessed for a while. Heat radiating from the lofty stalks drew me closer into their circle brushing against me. It made me want to climb hills and shout like when a new friend touches your hands.

Writer Elisabeth Tova Bailey also found relationship when she made a connection with certain small sounds. In her outstanding book The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating,  Bailey learned what the noisy munching was in her room. Bedridden for several years, she watched “a petal start to disappear” and began relishing a special companionship with a wild snail learning from it.  “Watching another creature go about its life…somehow gave me, the watcher, purpose, too,” Bailey said.

Listening Out
Slowing down and listening give writers and artists focus and deeper connections to the world around them. As Mary Oliver said to writers: “Listen, listen, I’m forever saying.”  In her poem “Stars” Oliver writes:

Listen to the river, to the hawk, to the hoof,
to the mockingbird, to the jack-in-the-pulpit —

Author William Stafford suggests being attentive to the almost inaudible sounds of the natural world day deepens our senses and brings us closer to other less noticeable but authentic realities. Stafford describes his father “listening out” in a poem:

My father could hear a little animal step,
or a moth in the dark against the screen,
and every far sound called the listening out
into places where the rest of us had never been.

Sounds of Ending/Beginning
All my life I listened to the small sounds around me and I am grateful that I did. On the day my father died the late afternoon sun was leaving its last fingers of light in the hospital room. When he took his last breath I heard the soft shudder of the white curtains pull apart, close. I waited for another sound. It didn’t come.

Minutes, hours, weeks went by, I had no interest in imagining…then one day the fields opened and I started dreaming again. I wanted to write, maybe capture a conversation from my childhood, sketch fireflies at dusk, or paint the opening blue sky the day dad lifted off. And I began to sing. – Becky Breed

Writing/Creativity Exercises:

1. For a warm-up activity click on YouTube’s relaxing music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxXzonJaQvQ Listening carefully requires surrendering, it’s not instantaneous. Listening takes practice and quiet. For example, Franz Liszt “heard apples muttering in a wicker basket…” Consider walking in a park, vegetable garden or open field and focus on the small sounds. Try listening again and again three or four times in a minute. What were the soundscapes?
2. Another listening practice is to be attentive to sounds in the kitchen. Alice Cozzolina said when she became more centered in her life, she discovered a long list. She said, “…almost any sound in the kitchen, even the clanging of pots’ spoons against the rim; pouring pasta in a colander…the sound of food sauteing in hot oil” were appreciated. Walk into your kitchen (or someone else’s) with a commitment to pause and listen. What sounds did you hear?
3. For a writing/creativity exercise: a. Review the sound library below adding any words you like. b. Now choose three or more verbs or phrases from the list that resonate: Organ-like droning, singing, gushes, drips, clanging, trickles, sizzling, humming, needles dropping on a glass table, honks, crunches, snaps, sharp juicy noises, munching, gnashing, heartbeats, pings, squeaks. c. Then, be inspired. Use the words in a piece of writing beginning with “When I heard these small sounds.. .”
4. For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com. Or follow this link to purchase Writing in Community or our latest book, The Fire Inside.