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The Magic of the Stone Circle: The Oral Tradition in America
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11469 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1986 |
3,038 Words |
| Author
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Kathleen Prentice
Kathleen Prentice is a free-lance writer whose articles appear
in the Detroit Free Press. |
Night moves in quietly, the soft blanket of dusk muting wild-flowers in the filed, drawing out the fireflies and crickets. Around a firepit families begin to gather. They lean into a circle enclosed by a ring of boulders as the flames dance against the darkening sky. A voice sings out:
And there were gypsies.
Mother told me that.
But not many of us remember that far back.
The poet's hands dance through the night air. They draw the listeners in as they move with the tale.
"There were gypsies, and they took things like it belonged to them! They came to get grain, they stole small children, their men were handsome as night, or their men were handsome and not to be trusted."
Pulling a worn woven shawl across her shoulders, she steps away from the fire.
On Saturday evenings from the summer solstice until the fall chill sets in, reciters and listeners gather around a bonfire in northern Michigan to share stories, poems, and ballads in a revival of the oral tradition. From California, New York, and down the road, hundreds travel to the Stone Circle in search of history - their own personal links to the past as well as the stories of our shared heritage.
Beyond the circle of stone ancient pines rise to meet the sky, forming a natural amphitheater. Dusk gives way to
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