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The Stones of Memory

from Threnody for a Forgotten Plague by Stephen Mead

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From "Threnody for a Forgotten Plague", work-in-progress dealing with the early days of the AIDS pandemic, specifically the fracturing of voices which literally and emotionally occurs during any such outbreak throughout time: the medical, political bureaucracy vs. the voices of humans fighting for their health and well being.

lyrics

The Stones of Memory


Sit in your hand, reflective,
polished, well-travelled.

How dead ends, promises have
tended their destiny: the wind-river,
mistral sea now condensed
in the light of some beloved's
breath.

That was the buoy through long nights
of sickness when you retched
and retched until the water
finally stayed down.

That was your island
when the spasm-gripped body
cried for Mom and knew in
the dark not death but
life, life's agonizing fears.

After that, cleansed pure, ceremonious
as Christ, the simple pleasures
became became:

that basket of apples there,
sun falling on red and ripened
green, the particular brilliance of the
rain, its resonance too, a sound
near to sun
the small stones behold while,
as if to a shell,
you quietly listen in.

credits

from Threnody for a Forgotten Plague, released December 24, 2014
In addition to instruments and sounds recorded around the house, and samples from MusicCreator5, the following sites also provided royalty free sounds and music:
SoundDogs.com, SoundBible.com, MP3Skull.com, InternetArchive.org (Various Unidentified Choral Chants before "tweaking"*), and FreeSound.org
*Ofert.Deprofundis, Sanctus Mass Viii, Kyrie-MassXviii

Particular FreeSound users (Cormi, Kerri, Setuniman, Suburban-Grilla, Pryght-One, ERH) provided

"Building Immunities" & "The Stones of Memory" includes "tweaked" samples of "From the Cathedral of Books", Jurgen Knieper, Side One Publishing: Milan America/Administered by Buttermilk Sky Associates, Inc., copyright1989

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Stephen Mead image

Stephen Mead Albany, New York

A resident of NY, Stephen Mead is a published outsider artist, writer, maker of short-collage films and sound-collage downloads. If you are at all interested please place his name in any search engine in conjunction with any of the above-mentioned genres for links to his multimedia work and merchandise. To order CDs via VISA or PayPal please visit stephenmeadmusic.weebly.com ... more

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