Below is my "Day 17" poem for this month, where I'm writing 30 poems in 30 days, thanks to Tupelo Press. They are publishing the work of several other poets I'm honored to be numbered among in December. We are also trying to generate support for the craft we love, and the art we do by helping
Tupelo. Click here to help a small, independent - and like Opera Roanoke, another nonprofit 501(c)3 organization - meet its fund-raising needs by the end of 2016.
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The Troubadour’s complaint (or, counterpoint with Saariaho)
…the right word has been suspended in the sky for all eternity, awaiting its place
(from L’amour de Loin, by Kaija Saariaho, libretto by Amin Maalouf)
At first it seemed easy
finding rhymes
aping ballads
playing old songs
like the latest hits
your roots
tentacles of meanings
hidden
like alchemical secrets
__
To be initiated
into the singer’s
cirlce
Like the Troubadour
To wrestle with
a single word
‘le mot juste’
each night of the moon
until it drops
like ripened fruit
into your hands
shaping the perfect cadence
__
II. ‘Le mot juste’
Jauffré spends
his life onstage
pining over
“the right word”
At his death,
he follows Tristan
dying in Isolde’s
fay-powered arms
III.
Our heroine is
no troped medieval princess
Clémence
is defiant has
nothing to do with this
Wagnerian Liebestod
She vents her
fury at God
and us
the Greek
chorus
taking away
her perfect love
in the instant
it blooms
She refuses consolation
Like Moses, the word
has failed her
__
(This is an image from the Met's stunning new production of the opera.
N.B. This draft – perhaps the seeds of a longer, polyphonic poem – is inspired by Kaaija Saariaho’s opera, L’amour de loin (“Love from afar”), which had its Metropolitan Opera premiere this month. Saariaho’s spectral musical drama reimagines the historical 12th century Provençal troubadour, Jauffré Rudel, and his “love from afar” affair with the Countess of Tripoli. The MET premiere is one of the best new productions I've seen in over 20 years visiting the house. The three American singers in the leading roles, Eric Owens, Susanna Phillips, and Tamara Mumford all give career-defining interpretations.
(December 2016 | NYC – R)