Eight-line Poems

Paraguay!

Paraguay!

Liquid it is, the harp,
cascading notes to the crashing waves
of the driving guitars,
pounding on the shore
where the harp plays and dances;
Paraguay’s song of sadness and joy,
rolling like the ocean,
sparkling as a stream on the stones.


Line count: 8
Free verse
For Express It In Eight, 11.16.21
Prompt: Paraguayan Harp Music.

Notes: I first heard the music of the Paraguayan harp in my mid teens.This was in a television documentary on the subject and it was a total revelation to me. It seemed so unlikely that the harp should be the national instrument of such a minor country in the backwoods of the South American continent. But it fitted in so well with the folk music of the people and I wanted to hear more of it. I searched for forty years to find other recordings but in vain. Along the way I learned a lot about the history of Paraguay and how the harp came to it, brought by Jesuit missionaries who first established and ruled the country.

There were times when I could hardly believe that this odd blend of a classical European instrument and Latin American rhythms could really exist. Perhaps I had dreamt this fantastic creation into being. But then the internet and Google came along and I was able to search far more extensively for proof that my memory did not lie. And there they were, just a few recordings of the real thing, the music of the Paraguayans, mixed in with orchestral attempts to “civilise” it.

Paraguay’s history has been one of great hope and crushing disappointments, times of freedom and brutal oppression, but out of it arises this cheerful and uplifting music built around the cascading notes of the harp. In its way, it is as representative of the best of South American music as that of the haunting Andean flute.