Mesmerized by Messiaen*
* Oliver Messiaen: French composer: 1908-1992
Ascension Day Mass
concludes spectacularly
with an organ postlude
full of lightning speed notes
crackling with thunderous
atonal dissonance
attacking mental demons
rattling my brittle mind
as battered ear drums
absorb arpeggios
of brash scalloping sound
peeling out of metal pipes
vibrating church pews
as angels & cherubs
in ferocious flight
dive-bomb off wooden rafters
surrounding penitent mortals
silent in abstract
cerebral concentration
hearing chaotic crescendos
from farting bass pedals
until finally—
a major chord unleashes
musical resolution