Messiah (Christmas Portions)

Doty, Mark (1953 - 0)

Original Text

1 A little heat caught

2in gleaming rags,

3in shrouds of veil,

4 torn and sun-shot swaddlings:

5 over the Methodist roof,

6two clouds propose a Zion

7of their own, blazing

8 (colors of tarnish on copper)

9 against the steely close

10of a coastal afternoon, December,

11while under the steeple

12 the Choral Society

13 prepares to perform

14Messiah, pouring, in their best

15blacks and whites, onto the raked stage.

16 Not steep, really,

17 but from here,

18the first pew, they're a looming

19cloudbank of familiar angels:

20 that neighbor who

21 fights operatically

22with her girlfriend, for one,

23and the friendly bearded clerk

24 from the post office

25 -- tenor trapped

26in the body of a baritone? Altos

27from the A&P, soprano

28 from the T-shirt shop:

29 today they're all poise,

30costume and purpose

31conveying the right note

32 of distance and formality.

33 Silence in the hall,

34anticipatory, as if we're all

35about to open a gift we're not sure

36 we'll like;

37 how could they

38compete with sunset's burnished

39oratorio? Thoughts which vanish,

40 when the violins begin.

41 Who'd have thought

42they'd be so good? Every valley,

43proclaims the solo tenor,

44 (a sleek blonde

45 I've seen somewhere before

46-- the liquor store?) shall be exalted,

47and in his handsome mouth the word

48 is lifted and opened

49 into more syllables

50than we could count, central ah

51dilated in a baroque melisma,

52 liquefied; the pour

53 of voice seems

54to make the unplaned landscape

55the text predicts the Lord

56 will heighten and tame.

57 This music

58demonstrates what it claims:

59glory shall be revealed. If art's

60 acceptable evidence,

61 mustn't what lies

62behind the world be at least

63as beautiful as the human voice?

64 The tenors lack confidence,

65 and the soloists,

66half of them anyway, don't

67have the strength to found

68 the mighty kingdoms

69 these passages propose

70-- but the chorus, all together,

71equals my burning clouds,

72 and seems itself to burn,

73 commingled powers

74deeded to a larger, centering claim.

75These aren't anyone we know;

76 choiring dissolves

77 familiarity in an up-

78pouring rush which will not

79rest, will not, for a moment,

80 be still.

81 Aren't we enlarged

82by the scale of what we're able

83to desire? Everything,

84 the choir insists,

85 might flame;

86inside these wrappings

87burns another, brighter life,

88 quickened, now,

89 by song: hear how

90it cascades, in overlapping,

91lapidary waves of praise? Still time.

92 Still time to change.

Digital Facsimile of Original Pages

Notes

1] George Frederick Handel's oratorio, Messiah," first sung in Dublin in 1741, may be the most popular, most performed choral work in English. It forms a staple of pre-Christmas concerts by choirs of all kinds, from local church to symphonic. Back to Line

5] Methodist: an evangelical church sect derived from John and Charles Wesley in the 18th century and emerging as a separate entity in 1932 in the United Kingdom. Back to Line

6] Zion: heaven. Back to Line

27] A&P: a grocery store chain in North America. Back to Line

42] Handel's second recitative in Messiah, "Every valley shall be exalted" (Isaiah 40.4): "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." Back to Line

92] Handel's recitatives, (1) "Behold I tell you a mystery" (1 Corinthians 15: 51-52), "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed", and (2) "The Trumpet shall Sound" (1 Corinthians 15.52-54), "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptable must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." Back to Line

Publication Notes

Boulevard

RPO poem Editors

Ian Lancashire

RPO Edition

RPO 2000.

Rhyme

unrhyming

Form

quatrains

Special Copyright

This poem cannot be published anywhere without the written consent of Mark Doty.