Happy Mid-June to All and Welcome to Poetics! Lisa here as your pub host, offerer/server of liquid refreshment and tasty snacks from the magic cupboard as well as provider of today’s Poetics prompt.

Although I’ve only been writing poetry since 2018, I’ve been listening to music since birth and probably before, as my mother loved listening to music. We always had a radio and a turntable in our home. I had access to the LPs beginning as a young girl and would pore over album covers while listening. I remember thrilling over Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf album that wordlessly told the story.

As of the writing of this post, I’ve been invited to go with friends to Gustav Holst’s, “The Planets” live performance by our local symphony orchestra. Again I’m reminded of how music can tell a story wordlessly, which allows the listener to feel without the impingement of the boxes of words. I also wondered how many have been inspired to write poetry because of music. I found out: many. Here are just a few:

Here is a spoken poem by Rudy Francisco, “Things I Strongly Believe,”

This excerpt, by Langston Hughes, from “The Weary Blues.”

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway. . . .
He did a lazy sway. . . .
To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man’s soul.
…

Bill Holm writes about one of Bach’s compositions in, “J.S. Bach: F# Minor Toccata” (which you can listen to here.

This music weeps, not for sin
but rather for the black fact
that we must all die, but not one
of us knows what comes after.
This music leaps from key to key
as if it had no clear place to arrive,
making up its life, one bar at a time.
But when you come at last to the real theme,
strict, inexorable, and bleak,
you must play it slow and sad,
with melancholy dignity, or you miss
all its grim wisdom.
In three pages, it says, the universe collapses,
and you—still only halfway home.

Finally, I found, “Listening,” by Amy Lowell, whose poem has a twist that won’t surprise many poets.

’T is you that are the music, not your song.
  The song is but a door which, opening wide,
  Lets forth the pent-up melody inside,
Your spirit’s harmony, which clear and strong
Sing but of you. Throughout your whole life long
  Your songs, your thoughts, your doings, each divide
  This perfect beauty; waves within a tide,
Or single notes amid a glorious throng.
  The song of earth has many different chords;
Ocean has many moods and many tones
  Yet always ocean. In the damp Spring woods
The painted trillium smiles, while crisp pine cones
  Autumn alone can ripen. So is this
  One music with a thousand cadences. 

Now we arrive at the familiar chorus, the parameters of the prompt. Dear Poets, the challenge today is to choose a musical artist, song, or genre of music and write a poem inspired by it or them. It can be a love poem, a declaration of disappointment, a parting of ways, an abiding fandom, or a new musical discovery. You could do a random youtube search and write an impression after listening. The field is wide open on this other than your poem must be inspired by some musical aspect. I’m geeked about the poetry that will be inspired from the prompt and hope to get to know more about each person after reading their poems.

New to dVerse? Here’s how to join in:
•  Write a poem in response to the challenge.
•  Enter a link directly to your poem and your name by clicking Mr. Linky below
and remember to check the little box to accept the use/privacy policy.
•  You will find links to other poets and more will join so please do check
back later in order to read their poems.
•  Read and comment on other poets’ work– we all come here to have our poems read.
•  Please link back to dVerse from your site/blog.

top image:  “Musical Inspiration” by Smeshleman