Cleaning house, poetically speaking, by knocking the sacred cello trope off its perch, even if only temporarilly, to scrub the grime at the base, before putting it back
in place
I rarely listen to the cello
although Bach wrote Sonatas for it
in sonorous trebling femur vibrations
like vapors escaping from a grimy morgue—
whose depressing visions creep along
hardened clay floors
invoking gloomy old woman
crying in imprisoned despair—
across forgotten dream fragments
clacking, like resonating
Polynesian long-boat oars
from beach-washed distances
tethering to the remembered sound
of that Gerald Sterne poem
with its spatialized musical tones
that hang in the back of the mind—
cellos emanating like smog-gassed foreign cities
of anonymous silver spires
attached to silver buildings
rising like bone cancer
from fear-soaked shores
in coal-dust evenings—
where remote sleeping giants
whose forgotton identities imprinted in dreams
dissipate and awaken instead
cursing the ethereal sound
of Sterne, Bach and his cello
as I promise myself
next time
to sleep in silence.
JZRothstein 11/12/2013
Poetry by Jeffrey Z Rothstein
Read 560 times
Written on 2013-11-13 at 20:16
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in place
Cello
CelloI rarely listen to the cello
although Bach wrote Sonatas for it
in sonorous trebling femur vibrations
like vapors escaping from a grimy morgue—
whose depressing visions creep along
hardened clay floors
invoking gloomy old woman
crying in imprisoned despair—
across forgotten dream fragments
clacking, like resonating
Polynesian long-boat oars
from beach-washed distances
tethering to the remembered sound
of that Gerald Sterne poem
with its spatialized musical tones
that hang in the back of the mind—
cellos emanating like smog-gassed foreign cities
of anonymous silver spires
attached to silver buildings
rising like bone cancer
from fear-soaked shores
in coal-dust evenings—
where remote sleeping giants
whose forgotton identities imprinted in dreams
dissipate and awaken instead
cursing the ethereal sound
of Sterne, Bach and his cello
as I promise myself
next time
to sleep in silence.
JZRothstein 11/12/2013
Poetry by Jeffrey Z Rothstein
Read 560 times
Written on 2013-11-13 at 20:16
Save as a bookmark (requires login) Write a comment (requires login) Send as email (requires login) Print text
