Walking down halls of stones
arched with time
chanting high walls of tones
white and gold
a song unknown
a hymn unspoken
a voice unheeded
swirls of dust disturbed
by darkened robes in motion
chanting singing intoning
voice rise
slicing sharply into air
voices rise atonal
silences singing spare
unvoiced prayers atonal
emerging then merging
creating lifting, hovering
pulled into hands
hands holding whispers
hands holding sighs.
Photograph: Fountains Abbey by Petr Kratochvil via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.
The first draft of this poem was written during the intermission of a concert by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and St. Louis Symphony Chorus, April 9, 2011, that included Samuel Barber’s “Prayers of Kierkegaard” and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, “Resurrection.”
This poem is submitted for One Shot Wednesday sponsored by One Stop Poetry. To see other poems submitted, please visit the site. The links will be live at 4 p.n. Central time.
You can read about Soren Kierkegaard here.
