ON THE MUSIC OF PHILLIP GLASS

 

ON THE MUSIC OF PHILLIP GLASS

You with your spun cathedral music

Spun of glass, of delicate glass

With the rivers rushing on

Lost rivers of music

Counterpoint of the lost continents

In the breaking of ourselves of

Earth in space wavering a little

The piano sublime clock and counterclockwise

poise and counterpoise

swiss watch precision, perfection

yet why does the heart ache so

Lovely I am leaving the loveliness now

I am turning back in an infinite spiral

and now crosscurrently almost but never drowning

And subterranean modern and

Yet nostalgic wistful

Speed and the slowing heartbeat

Melt into one 

Enchantment

Are we staying or going asks the child

In a brief gust of flowers

All of us turning in the gyre of Time

Held and let go

Faltering yet continuing

The music marvels on;grief stricken,

we cry out for its shores.

mary angela douglas 2 february 2024