THE RECLAIMED HYMNAL

Inspired a ukulele made from repurposed church pews by the artist Zeke Leonard at Pentaculum 2019 — a craft and writing residency at Arrowmont School.

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Photo by Dan “Soybean” Sawyer

Say an instrument is born with all of its songs

intact, DNA in the material from which

it’s forged. A ukulele fashioned from repurposed

church pews, the wood still holding ghosts

of parishioners in Sunday best. Their noble

intent, clean sweat of palms pressed in prayer

or maybe in some darker deal. Forgive us

our trespasses and the salt of tears

folded into handkerchiefs. The resonance

of hymns and the counter refrain of despair. A symphony

requires every note, harmonic and dissonant, even

the ones meant only for the confessional

of solitude. But nothing that sings is solitary. Music

culled from other lives, recycled from stiff-

backed pews into an instrument that lilts

and sways and whispers of Hawaiian sunsets

slack-keyed, loose hipped, dance with me

it says, even though the parishioners didn’t dance,

at least not where they could be seen. But who’s

to say they didn’t glide and twirl in dreams

of Fred and Ginger, of hula on the beach, of love

unfettered and infectious as a melody. Clean sweat

of palms pressed in prayer or maybe some higher

calling. All love songs are sacred, so sing them

to whatever heart will listen.