Pictures At An Exhibition Poem by gershon hepner

I often find that I am wishin’
that Mussourgsky hadn’t written
“Pictures at an Exhibition.”
My head would have been bitten
off by all its fans, like al-
coholic Rimsky-Korsakov.
Honi soi, I pense it mal,
but at this work I love to scoff,
aince it is overpraised and hackneyed.
For it I have no predilection,
far too mature now to be acne’d
in my musical complexion.

Inspired by a comment by Alan Chapman after I sent him a poem deploring the Mussourgsky-Rimsky-Korsakov piece he was broadcasting, “Night on a Bald Mountain.” Alan wrote:

So maybe you just sat there wishin'
For Pictures at an Exhibishin'?

The rationale of this poem was to refute his suggestion while paying homage to his outrageous rhyme, which of course, I plagiarize and recycle.


1/14/10