Feel free to offer suggestions/critiques. Thanks.
So What?
You think this is goin’ out of style?
That it doesn’t have anything to
say to people anymore because
it’s too introverted to relate?
So What?
It must have been hard to watch his world:
People so filled with rage, refusing
to admit negro children to schools.
Watching a country be torn by hate.
So What?
Why should it try to relate right now?
Its not as though he ever felt that
the people in this country believed
emancipation really happened.
So What?
So why should music cater to you?
It says what he wanted it to say,
and makes no apologies for that.
Sometimes the best cure is to create.
Bravo, John!
ReplyDeleteWhere are our other poets (besides Nathan, Nate, and Jenny)?!?
Here's my Schumann poem of 12 years ago:
About Edges
What was Schumann thinking calling for a
tempo “as fast as possible,” then later marking
“faster,” and then again, “faster still?”
Was it just the tension of the trying to
transcend the possible he wanted,
the freedom to which cages give birth?
Of triumph over walls? And is that what
drove him to fling himself in the Rhine,
his thoughtless lungs heaving for the air
he sought to leave for the muddy depths?
Where do we go at the edge in our fear
and fascination, our tempo at its top?
Can we lose ourselves, Robert, in the
beyond without drowning and still love?
John,
ReplyDeleteSeeing the line breaks helped me appreciate it even more. The break between "to" and "say" was especially nice. Perhaps it's possible to convey that when you read, but then we're getting into performance criticism:)
Todd