In my future is a new book of poetry I’m calling The Heart of All Music: poems about musicians and their music. The poems are based on impressions I gathered from 500 live concerts I attended in the past few years. Live music excites my imagination. My imagination instinctively forms language that expresses how music stimulates me. That, and a lot of work, made these poems. Allan Briesmaster is editing my work, and Aeolus House will be publishing the volume in the Spring of ’18. Here are a few bytes.
On a Performance by Daniel Bolshoy
The Spanish guitar speaks privately in tones
rich as rosewood, sharp as cracking bones
that fall as feathers filling an entire hall
On a Performance by Valery Gergiev
Valery “The Great” flows ‘cross the stage
fluid as cat and—“BAM”–
the orchestra bursts into sound.
Valery “The Great” –yes– Gergiev
conducts with a toothpick baton,
his left hand cupped and quivering—
poles of a battery that joins Gergiev’s life
to each cell of his Kirov Orchestra
that fire like nerves in his brain.
