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Overture in Red by Marge Simon

"OVERTURE IN RED"
copyright 2006 by MARGE SIMON

In the Music

A poem by Linda Simone

The music. Wraps stately. Stellar light:
Still as skyscrapers. In the end,
it speaks without words.
And our zenith,
lies where we do—six feet closer to rich earth and Hades.

Does this trouble you? Oh, you who dream
you'll wander countless days
above ground, always traversing land.
My friend, listen, the music. It is a lullaby
to rock you inward from the here-and-now.
Useless to complain, an undertone, harmony
leads to the abyss:
the final strains
set us waltzing through rain,
rising
in the night, beholden.

Copyright 2006 by Linda Simone

Linda Simone Linda writes:
This poem began as a "translation" of a poem in a language I didn't know. First, I pulled out words that resembled English. I mimicked punctuation and line and stanza length. This surprisingly resulted in a poem that was a departure from my usual voice.

Linda Simone's chapbook, Cow Tippers, won the 2006 Shadow Poetry Chapbook Competition. Her poems have appeared in Midnight Mind, NewVerseNews.com, Westview and Potomac Review, and in anthologies including en(compass) and Essential Love. She was former poetry editor for Inkwell, the literary journal of Manhattanville College, where she is Associate Director of Graduate Writing. Moon: A Poem, her first book for children, was published in 2002. Linda can be reached via email at lindsim1@aol.com.

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