Singing from Inside

The title, singing from inside, comes to me in a time of staying home. I think: what better way to learn to sing is there than to sing for one's own self. For one's own pleasure. To express merriment, gratitude, grief, loss, to play or reflect on the sounds you like. Choose the ones most pleasing and most satisfying— to you. Perhaps now is the time for us to create a new way of singing. Your way of singing. 

In writing and in singing we talk about finding our voice. True voice implies what lies beneath the surface. It is the rough wood beneath the veneer of whatever is deemed culturally, aesthetically acceptable. The scales and arpeggios, the vowels and consonants, are all meant to convey or express or represent a thought, a feeling, an emotion— beyond words. Sounds beyond words. Yet, each has an intention. We simply must create. Singing inside...
I'm reminded of Gary Snyder's poem,

For All 

Ah to be alive
on a mid-September morn
fording a stream
barefoot, pants rolled up,
holding boots, pack on,
sunshine, ice in the shallows,
northern rockies.
 
Rustle and shimmer of icy creek waters
stones turn underfoot, small and hard as toes
cold nose dripping
singing inside
creek music, heart music,
smell of sun on gravel...