January 22nd, 2015


Daniel's Jojk, Jon Henrik, 2014

"The reference to the object of a yoik [jojk] is not something which someone may add to or leave out from the melody…[t]he melody is closely connected to the referential object in an indissoluble relationship. Linguistically this is expressed through the fact that one does not yoik about somebody or something, there is a direct connection; one yoiks something or someone."
              - Harald Gaski

For a long time you were very still,
listening for a song you could not quite hear.

You followed a path that wrapped
itself around a mountain.

You were dizzy with desire and the view.

You walked your feet raw and your knees
busted through your skin, their white caps
gleaming in the light pollution from the valley.

When you finally stopped, when you finally
rested against the tree, you heard a humming

that at first you mistook for the wind.

But it was something other.

This went on for years, the listening,
the chasing, the gentle pulse of your
desire to join the melody. 

And, then, once in the night, you woke
and heard it. Your body, still
asleep, lay frozen. It was louder now,
louder and closer.

From beneath your breath it came.

The song is not something you can
find and belong to. 

You are the song.
It belongs to you.