Ode to Music and Poetry
As I lift my pen
The conductor’s baton
lifts in strident unison
The nib of the pen drawing down
the first anguished letter
As the strings take up the refrain
and take the poet aloft
in Tchaikovksyian splendour
heart warming
heart-rending
As the poet’s
stream of consciousness
alights the page.
The refrain,
It pauses in mid-air …
Carried aloft from flute to oboe
Mid Sentence … …
The creative spirit through
musical score and pen
Running with speed, resilience,
Sheer joy,
Sheer love
Expressed sublime
The Two forever-twined.
A warning from the flourishing baton
A Gasp!
The Amphitheatre holds breath. … … … …
Carried through to the Crescendo
of wind strings stretched canvas
and delirious harp … … … … … …
That which God has enjoined
Let no man put asunder
The poet pauses …
With one finger to the lips
Barenboim brings the hush … …
... … another pause … …
then a flourishing movement
of time, sound and distance
and yes, the pen hovers …
He awaits, it seems, for time
Eternal but patiently
Knowing the poet will find the lines
the thoughts
the feelings
His very soul
Her very spirit
And the ink will sink deep
into the paper.
The music lays
The bows take their place in quietened laps
Instruments rest
That brief moment of stillness
Every breath held … … …
The last note on the Grande
quietly leaving,
as Barenboim slowly turns,
handkerchief to brow,
placing the baton
alongside the poet’s pen
She stands
and quietly moves with
the Note of the Spirit...
Yes, A quiet, gentle smile.
An eruption of delight
as standing ovations commence
and the power of the pen
through score and word
transmits and alights an audience
and invigorates an Orchestra
to perform again!
… and again!!
… … and again!!!
And by their combined sheer brilliance
do silence those in dark corners
who demand music’s death,
and will continue to silence in every age,
in aeons to come,
into Eternity itself.
The Spirit remains supreme
impossible to challenge or to crush.
Humble, Quiet, on an air with Humility
for the spirit is of The Spirit
The Karma
The Ruach HaKoDesh
Play on
Kenneth Thomas Webb
Liverpool
January 1, 2022
All Rights Reserved
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© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2021
One of the Fifteen Founding Members of Leaders Lodge
Written August 31, 2013
Republished February 27, 2020
Author Note
Written on the moment's spur as the first line suddenly came to mind, walking by a Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra poster outside the RLPO ... and suddenly dashing across the lights to get into Quick Chef - the delightful multicultural Cafe on Hardman Street, a true example of this City's pulse - for supper, grab my seat, before I lost the thought. The Orchestral piece is Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 2 - 2nd Movement under the baton of Daniel Barenboim. Funny isn't it how things stick in the memory when we've already written about something and therefore think that 'that's that!'
The silence of dark corners refers to the troubled reading of Taliban and Isis ‘screeds’ that perceive all music and all creative writing as being a source of intense displeasure to the being they insist is a most benevolent thing; and therefore to be outlawed, because it offends that thing.
This is the link of the actual recording that came to mind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN7oFdFqtB4
Daniel Barenboim ~ Conductor & Pianist
This image is courtesy of hifinews.com
