Early Music
There were Messiahs in the air
when they were young, gods
and muses to pluck strings,
set them athrum
through infinity,
and loves to lift daisies
out of their beds, send them
spinning in the vortexes of black space.
We all lived once on the cusp,
hope still a newborn
fresh-cleaned of blood and urine,
one string ours alone
from the music of the spheres,
reverberating in our hearts,
lapping distance,
licking at unseen shores
with by then (though we didn’t
know it) tiny, tiny songs,
all, all come of our own awakening.
Carol Hamilton has retired from teaching 2nd grade through graduate school in Connecticut, Indiana and Oklahoma, from storytelling and volunteer medical translating. She is a former Poet Laureate of Oklahoma and has published 19 books and chapbooks: children's novels, legends and poetry. She has been nominated eleven times for a Pushcart Prize. She has won a Southwest Book Award, Oklahoma Book Award, David Ray Poetry Prize, Byline Magazine literary awards in both short story and poetry, Warren Keith Poetry Award, Pegasus Award and a Chiron Review Chapbook Award, Editor's Choice Book for Main Street Rag.