PAD Day 25: Hallelujah for "Hallelujah"!

 Today's prompts from Write Better Poetry and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write a "memory" poem, and (2) "Write a poem that recounts an experience of your own in hearing live music, and tells how it moves you."

I've always loved Handel's Messiah, and I try to catch live performances of it at Christmastime, when it's most frequently performed. There's nothing like a full-throated choir and full orchestra to inspire you with that most glorious work. However, one of my favorite musical moments was when just four female voices - Maggie, Suzzy and Terre Roche, along with Shawn Colvin - sang the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah a cappella as an encore at the now-defunct Apple Farm Folk Festival in southern New Jersey some 25 or 30 years ago. It was perfect. I thought it might be fun to describe that memory in the style of Leonard Cohen's classic song "Hallelujah."

Pocket Hallelujah

(after Leonard Cohen)
 
The Roches and Shawn Colvin hit
The stage to do their encore bit,
It was their perfect harmony that drew ya,
The fairgrounds rang with voices four,
There was no need for any more,
An a cappella Handel’s “Hallelujah.”
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
 
Of all the things you heard that day,
That memory won’t go away,
Like blood the music circulates right through ya,
It’s carried everywhere you go,
A secret note you like to show
Your closest friends, your pocket Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.