On my sound walk through Downer's Grove I shut my mouth, opened my ears, and let it take me away. I have sat in woods and listened before, but previous to this experience I never thought much as to what I was hearing. I received an old internal world. A world I haven't visited since my childhood.
The noises surrounding me turned into a place I could never hope to visually see. There was a certain mystical or supernatural feeling that engulfed me. Everything changed into what my mind thought it was, beyond logic or likelihood. I was no longer in the Downer Grove woods, I was now in a place where the wind shared it's wisdom with the trees and where cars were animals that haunted the world around mine but could never breach. I hope you enjoy this attempt to recapture this world we haven't seen since we were worry free.
Listening with my eyes open and ears cupped I heard:
An airplane miles overhead, like a finger rubbed across print paper in a silent room.
My own inconstant breath and the quite rale of asthma coming fro inside of me.
The white nose, silent hum, of nothingness pouring in to my ears from in my cupped hands.
Listening with eyes closed and ears uncupped:
* Gentle smooching of the birds chirp as they take full advantage of there limitless freedom, flying in and out all around me, alone and together, proud and timid.
* The furious hum of distant cars faster and faster to destinations of stress and problems behind me. Unhappy with there life expectancy, and content in they’re chronic need.
* The old hymnals of wisdom of the wind chittering with the treetops above me. Colloquial understandings of the world I could never hope to understand and in all there modesty they still hold it above me.
* Although I believe it was just my imagination I heard a gentle rustle of leaves gently whirling to the ground all around me. Falling in a constant stream, a reminder of the inevitable harsh winter to come, with a coy silence in it's calm.
* A noise that confused me was initially a baa from a sheep, then turned in my head to a sharp creak of an old opening door, and later a fellow sound coinsure informed me it was some type of a water fowl. This came from a long ways away from me behind me and to the left.
* I heard the now sky shredding ripple of the overhead airplanes reminding me over our attempted grasps at natures born freedoms.
* I heard what to me was a stringless bow grinded against a stringless neck of a cello to the left behind me.
* A contentious rev of a mans chainsaw trimming bushes in a front yard. This came from a house just out of the forest to the left of me.
In walking out of the woods I felt I heard so much more than sitting in one place, but what I heard wasn't as magical or calming.
* Crunching branches underfoot
* Hollow knocking of wood as we passed over a footbridge
* Dog barking off in the distance
* Crunching and scrapping of rocks as we dragged our feet down the stone path as we're scribbling in our note pads
* Gentle sighs of wind in the trees above
* Whispery scrawl of pencil on paper
* My mind commenting on the sounds shouting out realizations as if I’m on a noon game show
* Lame poof of a car horn of on the road to the right
* Screeching hum of a cricket? Or some other type of bug
* Crunchy trickle of falling leaves
* Clapping basketball against the asphalt
* Chatter of competitive sports
* Screeching of basketball shoes
* Simultaneous patter of a tennis ball
* People talking and whistling
* Poot of a football being kicked high into the sky
* Sleek squeak of shoes sticking to the path
* Quick paced patter of soft step students shuffling down stairs
* Creek of an opening door
* Slapping of a pencil against a notebook
* Clapping Hands
* Gentle unidentified hums
* Girls chattering amongst themselves
* Jingling of keys from different people in different spots as they walk on by
* A comical high-pitched singing male
* Sighing and shuffling of students
* Rubbing of wet shoes on carpet
* Clicking of a pen
* Hand sweeping across a pad of paper
* Humming air conditioner
* Venting transformer
* Scrapping of leaves and feet
* Humming "nerd" transformer
I also have written down 11 things that I can't read or didn't understand including, "Scrapring oofs of a pregnant inconsistanly". What that means I will never know.
Up on top is my map and thank you for listening.
