Mozart's Requiem
I: Requiem
The Requiem drapes its heaviness
Upon the frail mortal shoulders.
Overpowering senses with its massiveness
Of stunning vibrations, echoing death
Through every portal and chamber known
Of the gloom endarkened mind.
Its hypnotic bent and chaotic whirl
Only to emerge serenely, seraphic bright
From the tomb of darkness and decay
Beyond the transitory life of today
And to touch a ray of Heaven's light.
II: Kyrie
Smoldering, as pyre's eerie coal
Rings, resounding, through a chorus' cry
And stretching longingly their hands to a goal
Unattainable, only grasping the air.
To burn, to bend, to break the will!
To shatter the condemning mortal shell,
Leaving nothing but, growing still,
The increasing shadows, ever-close
Wandering through the desolate wastes,
Wandering through an empty golden palace,
Haunting dying emperors, yet blessing chains
To melt a prisoner's groaning sorrow.
III: Sequenz
Specters stir with robes so sable
Rippling thickness in the sunless day,
Bearing black candles to a mournful table
Flit easily away to green field flowers
Or plunging into grave-vessels of ice.
The marble chill, shivering deep
On February nights, thy heart alone
To ponder and hope, so steeped
By the ever-creeping, saturant sorrow
Which dimmed the brow, pallor grey.
And groaning tossed, life waging
Vicious war against vanquishing death.
Groaning, weeping with burning tears,
Stinging eyes as knives cut raw.
Deep bitterness drunk, the wine of fears
Clutching tight the pulsating life
Till slowed the blood in ardent veins,
Slowed and stilled the fiery life
To die away in flickering strains
As eyes, wet, from suffering and despair
And see opaquely through the shroud
And sigh with a breath not its own.
Unable to fight or cry aloud,
For no help will come, yet shifting
In silence, pale-waned life shall gently rise,
A luminous halo, a golden mist escapes the earth
As the feeble flame expires upon the tallow.
IV: Offertorium
May the ice of earth be as lovely
As crystals sparkling with rainbow
Light and the sun shine beautifully
Beyond clouds so grey, which the world
Circles in sorrow, surrounded by melancholy.
Early snow enshrouds your grave, long past
Be your spirit crowned in blinding glory.
And as you stand upon the glassy sea,
Ashore, touching all human spheres
Bursting from its Time, thou shalt see
A once-subtle jewel glittering from the haze
Shifting and seizing, sublime desires
And reflect from its light amid the din
And whirl of Chaos, bearing aloft Genius Fire.
V: Communio
Tears dripping, souls shall weep
Who long since wandered the lonely earth
And beheld, in glory and majesty,
Rising song, its radiant birth
Shattering death, unstifled by it fatal stroke.
Death drains away through mortal voice.
Sweet music, singing beauty and peace.
Song flowing with fire from ash,
Its melody rising, never to cease,
Not to die by the weighted pall,
Nor to drown by the roar of All
And through the veil of blighted death,
With a moment of silence, a stilled breath
Rising, towering, blinding ethereal
Floating upon wings, heavenly to feel
All of Heaven in a Requiem seal.
Copyright 1996 by K.A. Schure. All rights reserved.
About the "Requiem" poem:
I have long been one of the greatest admirers of Mozart's "Requiem".
Though I was entranced and often in awe of Mozart's amazing and limitless
genius, I was even more astonished this was the work of a man on his deathbed!
Sadly I knew that I could never produce anything half as beautiful as in
a single passage of that magnificent piece, not even in my most sweeping
descriptions or most inspired poetry. Still, amid this remarkable beauty
there was a great longing and sadness, even more so because Mozart knew
of his impending death.
It has been my greatest disappointment (and own personal longing) in
this masterpiece that he was not granted the time to finish the work. What
bothered me the most was that nobody had ever written an entire piece,
dedicated in his honor, to the "Requiem" and all the joy, sadness,
and divine inspiration they felt flowing from the music. It was around
this time that I decided to write a poem not only in honor of the "Requiem",
but Mozart and his crowning achievement. Along the way I had a slue of
"universal" poetical themes naturally springing up which are
the backbone of religion: the tragedy of death, humanity's sorrow, deliverance
from death's shadow, rejuvenation in the Eternal.
Being a superstitious fool, I wanted to write the poem under similar circumstances to Mozart (minus the fatal illness, luckily). I bought a genuine quill pen with a jar of black ink. I began writing it in early September, about the same time Mozart was commissioned for the "Requiem". Since I was healthy, however, I managed to finish the "Requiem" much more quickly, in about three days. I officially finished revisions and wrote up the poem on the computer and signed my dedication to Mozart on December 5th: 205 years after his death.
* Requiem MIDIS reproduced with the permission of M. Salvi
