Well, I don’t have any Tibetan monk-chanting on hand, but here’s a prayer from Ay-Kherel, the Tuvanese throat-singing group, with swan song mixed in:
http://www.vianegativa.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/swan-morgul.mp3

Glad you liked. Now you have me wondering what a throat-singing-swan song mashup would sound like.

Evidently it was a Led Zeppelin song, too — that one even has its own Wikipedia entry. I tend to avoid googling things that are really more about what I remember, because my memory is quite often inaccurate and learning the truth would tempt me to adjust my memory. The Burl Ives’ song I remember was self-referential, refering to (another?) song called “Over the Hills and Far Away”:

Tom he was the piper’s son
Learned to play when he was young
and the only tune that he could play
Was Over the Hills and Far Away…

The Wikipedia however says that the proper title of that song is “Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son” — and that it’s really a nursery rhyme. Hmm.

Thanks, Laura. I had hoped that parallel would be apparent without seeming over-drawn. The main criticisms I have about this poem are the sort that would occur to any author: Why isn’t it more x, why doesn’t it have more y? But I guess it succeeds at what it sets out to do.

I love the thought of those swans, and this poem in general.

Also your ‘glyphs of wild onions’, calligraphic natural things always beguile!

Thanks, Marja-Leena (and thanks for catching that typo). I tried to make a video poem with this, but somehow it just didn’t work out. I think my standards for videoetry have gotten too high as a result of working on the Moving Poems site.