2-20-06
|
Let me hear the song, the melody of sorrow Let me see the tears that will be shed tomorrow Let me watch the drama as life declines from birth Let me witness blood flowing down into the earth The rising sun will always set, the day will always fade The night will always come again and summer still will wane The dusk has come, the sky is red, there’s crying in the streets As blood flows like a river and streams down by your feet Blood is shed, blood is stolen, ne’er to be repaid And in the cold, dead earth the lifeless body now is laid The clash of vicious steel echoes through the town Every past is haunted, all faces bear a frown No one is free here, all are locked in chains Locked in their own histories, they will never change They are crying to be freed, their souls are slowly dying But still they do not grab the key, they’re not even trying Never knowing hope, they have nothing left to cling on So their melancholy requiem they will forever sing on I hear the melody, the chanting and the cries I see the sorrow and the tears and the lies I’ve watched the drama, and everybody’s pain I’ve witnessed blood flowing down again The rising sun is setting, the day is dying out The winter night’s already here and we are crying out The blood that flows, we watch it pass, our tears fall without choice The blood that shall not be repaid is crying for a voice How long will it take for us to open up our eyes To look around and notice all the people’s dying cries Will we just stand around and still ignore the pain Until our little lives give out like theirs do, just the same The people will sit in agony, the rain will continue to pour And their melancholy requiem they’ll sing forevermore |
I sat down and said, "you are going to write a poem!" That went nowhere. I first wanted to title it "Blood". But as I could not think of much to do with blood--at least, not without going all vampire as I have a tendency to do--I simply wrote whatever came to mind, up to the line "so their melancholy requiem they will forever sing on". Then I sort of repeated the first six lines, a bit modified, because I think poems that do that are pretty cool. I wanted to simply repeat the first line that had to do with a requiem and the line that rhymes with it. But it didn't sound quite right, because in one line the emphasis is on "on" and on the other it's on "sing". Then the line "their melancholy requiem they'll sing forevermore" came to my mind for a finishing line--similar, but not exactly the same, perfect! The last two lines are not in the same rhythm the lines preceding them, but it still sounds good. If you read it right at least.