Do I have time to write a villanelle
To think of worthwhile topics is a pain
I’m feeling lonely, so I think I will

This room is dark but feels as hot as hell
I’m sipping boiling  China tea  again
Do I have time to write a villanelle

My  friend is on the motorway, she’s ill
She never learned that cities  have no end
I’m feeling lonely, so I think I’ll yell.

She’ll probably take  some higher kind of pill
If she comes she’ll drive me round the bend
Do I have time to write a villanelle?

Once on Langdale Pikes I slipped and fell
My mother never knew how I descend
I’m feeling mad now so I think I’ll yell

 

I have a small piano, ain’t life grand?
Pardon me  for  giggling with the band
Do I  envy now the villain’s Belle?
I’m immoral, now life’s temporal.

 

You revealed the face within your face
Human,lowly, humbler than an ant
The pathos in your eyes made sad my gaze
The other face, defended, has no grace
With it ,you appear quite confident.
Yet you revealed to me your hidden face
I know now of the suffering of your days
A fear of tragic pasts feared imminent
The pathos in your eyes made sad my gaze
The Lord says you’re his lamb and sends you grace.
Yet you must hide from men intolerant
You revealed the face within your face
Like Jesus, you were scourged and in disgrace
You wandered feebly,lost, itinerant
The pathos in your eyes makes sad my days
If God exists then would he not embrace
The lost, the lonely, even the vagrant?
You revealed the face within your face
The pathos in your eyes shows humans base

The end of music, Mahler’s sorrowed vision
The suffering  he both prophesied and felt
What music might replace the great tradition?

Atonal works of Schoenbergh met derision
Would Stravinsky’s Firebird our hearts melt?
The death of music, Mahler’s sorrowed vision

To the masses came a huge concession
With rock and pop and blues we are  now filled
What kind of music might replace the great tradition?

Europe broke the world in its collisions
Destruction that they claim was never willed
The death of music, Mahler’s sorrowed vision

God has left us  to our fantasies, our visions
Not on the Cross but here in Europe  he was killed
What music can connect to great   tradition?

Change perceptions, change our human will
Or we will die in paying off the bill
The end of music, Mahler’s sorrowed vision
What music could replace the great tradition?