Pictures at an Exhibition
Poor Viktor Hartmann!
All that remained of his towering soul
were visions pressed on to paper
hanging in a St. Petersburg gallery.
Mussorgsky advanced his lumbering frame
along the gallery halls
searching for his lost friend.
Sonic images formed in the composer’s mind
singing replicas of Hartmann’s icons:
An old castle,
Children quarreling,
An ox resisting the weight of its cart,
The Great Gate of Kiev.
Mussorgsky’s notes sound and vanish
as ephemeral as life itself -
passing into the ether only to live anew
with each successive performance.
Viktor lives!
October, 2006
"All that remains, visions pressed onto paper" and that really is all that remains isn't it...Beautiful verse although I must look up the artist. How wonderful that he lives in your memory and not as an after thought. Dorothy A Poet Who Loves To Sing