Stravinsky said there was no tradition
behind his rite, that he simply
wrote what he heard, the vessel
through which the sacre passed,
and this is ritual without rote,
a rise of all things rooted
in dirt. There is nothing holier
and more base than May,
and we know it, we who sing
in scales or words or color
what is given, what is blended and mixed
in this glass of our bodies
before it is poured out,
this time in libation.
***for your listening pleasure, click here to listen to The Adoration of the Earth from The Rite of Spring. I can see the dancers, jumping down hard, pressing their feet flat as I listen to this.