Sounds of the Dead

You will come to know the voice

Of Jesus—

You will hear him give a talk as

If you were sitting in the sun

On the dusty plains of Italy.

The voices of the dead still whisper

In their small vibrato, like wine

Casks still give an odor residual

Of the grape vine taken from

An Italian terroir transplanted to

Our own soil; and taste

The same wine that He drank

With his disciples -

Silence is imaginary, as if the

Wax disk containing Alexander

Graham Bell’s voice hides articulations

in its waiting grooves -

Hidden for a century to find

Its voice.

So will the voices of the dead

Whisper to us —

Their meaning rise and fall

From the vertical grooves of the

Earth - and spin out their messages.

Poetry Purgatorio