Day 9: War vs. Music

Last night I attended my first in-person indoor poetry reading since the pandemic began. It featured a poet I know and admire, J.C. Todd, and her daughter Savannah Cooper-Ramsey. I got to read two poems from my new book plus one newer poem during the open mic. Everyone was masked, and it was an excellent evening.

Today's dual prompts from Write Better Poetry and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write a "breaking" poem, and (2) Write a "nonet," a none-line form that starts with nine syllables and decreases the number in each successive line down to one syllable. I guess the utter destruction of war can be seen as a kind of "breaking" - in the sense of physical structure, but also, especially in the case of the current war in Ukraine, in the sense of breaking the spirit of the people who are attacked. I wrote a "double-reverse" nonet, I guess you can call it, where the syllables increase again with an additional nine lines. I thought it was a good way of showing a kind of "rising from the ashes." I also wanted to pay tribute to the bravery of Ukranian musicians who have performed for their countrymen sheltering in place, and even in some cases in the open air under the threat of missile attacks. Music has always been witness to history. 

Pathétique
 
They bombed Tchaikovsky's home, a villa
in Trostyanets where he wrote
his first symphonic work. They
levelled the whole city.
Hundreds have been killed,
even children.
But by God
we will
turn
around
this horror
with pianos,
violins, trumpets,
singing in bomb shelters.
Music will be the witness,
all the grief and all the triumph,
a brave anthem against tyranny.