Earlier this. year, I asked friends to create something to help me mark turning half a century old and promised that at some point in the next year I would respond in kind. Steven Méthot wrote and performed this beautiful self-described crooked tune, “Saugahatchee and Seneca.” He explained this decision as follows:
I chose to play it slower as an “air”, partly because it brings out the unexpected turn of the Mixolydian mode, a nod to Scottish and Irish influences. That “turn” figured in my imaginings of you running along shorelines and through watersheds, ready for your next haiku epiphany. It did not escape me that both place names in the title are indigenous. Here in Canada we have started in recent years to make land acknowledgements during public events.
He then shared an example of an acknowledgement he makes when MCing events. (I have begun using land acknowledgements and a little bit of local history before each of the first classes I teach here at HWS and I am so grateful for another example to use.)
(Steven kindly granted me permission to share his recording and his thoughts with this post.)
