Poetry from Song

I’ve written several poems recently by listening to music and letting myself respond in language.  Here are a few examples with links to the music on youtube.

Oliver singing “Good Morning Starshine” from Hair, found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw3oxJvSRj0

star fields fade

in the morning air
light seeps softening the
depth of the night

morning stars lie

softer in
a lighter sky
welcoming earth vision

Good morning starshine!

Rubenstein playing a Chopin polonaise found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-2aNWr-6jE&feature=fvst

sparkling in air

glistening in the sun
bright fountain
bursts gravity’s bond

quickening footsteps

respond as brighter
thoughts arise glistening in
minds bursting bonds

Zagger and Evans “In the Year 2525” (particularly the last line) found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiD2CGkoNts&feature=fvst

silent stars gaze

across a land bereft
of sighs or sorrows

empty spaces gaze

collapsing into silence
crushing dreams

no one walking

fast across the vast
expansive silence

no beating heart

quick with pleasure
or with pain

silent witness

silent witness
silent stars gaze

Samual Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izQsgE0L450&feature=related

mournful stings ring step to step

across a space expanding still
thin, moving, and impossible to fill
the lowly worm balks and is still
an earthless hallway echoing
an echo silent sharp and sudden still

great nature has no other thing to do

than what she’s done and done again
while moonscapes wax and wane
the lowly worm resumes its’ march
and puzzled thoughts seek spiraling
ascent while settling down


May we all be blessed