"Excitation"

“The fundamental frequency is the lowest frequency
component of a signal that excites (imparts energy)
to a system,” says the Wiki.

Here and there a big electronic ear sticks out
from a house, odd as ours are, tilted to scoop
invisible motion from the air, thump it down
on the drum inside our bony skull, tilted
like the red woodpecker head this morning
in the dead oak, listening for insects beetling
through bark, then the spear stick beak,
the rim shot crack, now six beats in this poem,
because perhaps it’s not sound but vibration
we crave, evidence of motion, how I broke
down and cried, hearing your voice first time
on the answer machine, that low frequency,
how many chances missed, how many took,
perhaps not all, not yet, I said to myself What
is happening? standing on a fundamental wave,
like ground rising and falling under my bare feet.

Minnie Bruce Pratt

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Creative Commons 2010