Resigned Bitter-Sweet Amen [rev.] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

There is only one true reaction listening to
Ave Maria sung by Maria Callas, a single
way to feel what the music brings - tears,
the stab to the heart so painful and sharp,
the full, beautiful voice piercing previous
defences against feelings, voice gaining
in intensity - like a judgment from God

Increased urgency ascends to its highest
notes expressing unbearable pain, all this
spinning in circling scales, rolling cascades
following each other - creating an aspect of
increasing dread, the inevitable feelings of
eternal sadness accompanied by terrible
emotion as the words "Santa Maria"

Repeat against overflowing streams of
notes rolling over and over and drowning
listeners in their own sorrows, then with
its crescendos spent, winding down to a
resigned bitter-sweet Amen…

[21 November 2014]