On Music (Glorious Drowning) Poem by Rebekah Gamble

I close my eyes so it can fill me.
It flows through my nostrils,
pleasantly drowning me.
It is for me the executioner.
Carrying it within me,
I have the control of stone,
and the might of a giant.
It relies on no man,
and forces grown men to their knees.
It is the breath and tears
of Aphrodite's statue
and the shadow from the paint
on a great Renaissance masterpiece.
We can not hide from it our innermost parts,
we can hold back no secret.
Music creates in us
what we have forgotten of God's image.
It grows inside, it swells,
it flows out gushing from my fingertips
onto the keys of my piano
who dance desperately,
trying to keep up.
The song is pressed against me,
it is larger than I
and pushes me from my house.
Have you visited the temple to music?
It reaches up into the heavens!
One can carry music within
and feel it swell and push up in the chest,
the belly is full with it,
it becomes water filling the lungs.
Oh, glorious drowning!

5august o8