Kristen Morgan | www.lanierstar.com
something completely different
I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable;
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
Walt Whitman
We all of us have a barbaric yawp secreted somewhere inside. Some carry it just below the surface, and easily let it loose in frustration or celebration, in joy or anger. Others keep it interred deep within…maybe out of some ingrained notion of propriety, maybe out of timidity, maybe out fear that once unleashed the scream will never stop.
Untamed and fierce, primitive and primal, the untranslatable yawp has survived intact within humankind since humankind began. It is the roar of the triumphant hunter, one foot on the corpse of his prey. It is the desolate mother’s shriek of despair at the death of a child. It is the wail of defeat and the baying of the mob and the bellow of a challenge. We tilt back our heads, open our mouths, and the barbaric yawp comes unbidden.
Sophistication and refinement are a thin varnish. Some emotions can only be expressed at the top of your lungs. Sometimes we just need to howl.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
