More Bass; Less Treble

I’ve started reading a poem a day from the Poetry Magazine to which I recently subscribed.  I keep the magazine on the nightstand beside my bed so I will reach for it as soon as my alarm goes off.  When I get the chance, I reread the poem throughout the day, sometimes out loud, to find and feel its rhythm.  Every morning I wake up craving my new poem.

In a brilliant panel on “Making Room for Essayist Thinking in Hard Times” at this year’s Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference, I listened to Heather Lanier quote pastor Rob Bell:

Progressive Christian pastor Rob Bell describes a yearning specific to our culture right now: “I call it the bass note,” he says. “We are craving bass notes right now. The treble is the squeakier, higher frequency note, and then there’s the bass note. And something about modern culture, and something about the way the Internet has worked on us,… the way in which blips and squeaks are coming at us faster than ever, the way in which news is sensationalized, the headlines that demean actual news and journalism and reporting, this TMZing of our world, it’s sped everything up so that everything is happening right here in this moment. Have you seen this snapchat? It can easily disconnect you from things that are older than five minutes. Life can become all treble, no bass.”[1]

At the end of her presentation, Lanier encouraged us to spend time with the bass notes—with things that resonate deeply and take a long time to make.  Like trees and books, Lanier suggests.  Like poems, children, art galleries and churches, I’d add.

How about you?  What bass notes do you crave?  What resonates deeply within you?

[1] Bell, Rob. “What is the Double Down.” The Robcast. May 14, 2017. https://robbell.podbean.com/e/what-is-the-double-down/

[Feature Image: Squeezyboy]