The obstacles make you sing

 Interruptions, annoyances and heartbreaks give us a voice. That which we struggle against defines us. In our struggles, we make “a blundering noise made out of stumbles.”

That phrase comes from “A noise of stumbles,” a short poem by Norman MacCaig.

This poem relies on a wonderful metaphor:

Stones in the throat make the hill burn sing.

It’s in the stones in the creek bed that make the brook babble.