Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE NOON ORGAN CONCERT, by EDWIN MCNEILL POTEAT JR.


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE NOON ORGAN CONCERT, by                    
First Line: Ave maria, he started to play
Last Line: In the babble of voices and patter of feet.
Subject(s): Life; Marriage; Mary (name); Mothers; Singing & Singers; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


Ave Maria, he started to play
And there went Mary, looking for Joe.
He hailed his Mary his own sweet way --
"Hello there, Honey, I've missed you so."

Largo, by Handel. It dragged a bit
For the pushing, hurrying, hungry bunch
That heard not a single note of it
At twelve o'clock on its way to lunch.

Look down, look down from your golden pipes
And play the tunes of the restless crowd;
Slow or fast as the shifting types,
Strident or tender, muted or loud:

A tune for a man whose wife is late,
For a loafer killing an hour or two,
For a harlot there for a casual date --
All day long with nothing to do;

For a mother leading a wailing child,
For a shopper who haggles and never buys,
For a happy urchin, dirty and wild,
For a thief with furtive fingers and eyes;

Play a rhythm to cheer, and a blast to warn,
A lover's rapture, a haggler's plaint,
A dancing air on a golden horn,
A prayer for a sinner, hymn for a saint.

The music stopped; and the air replete
With the babble of voices, the patter of feet,
Swelled with a symphony all its own,
Careless of melody, heedless of tone;

But more to the mood than the pipes of gold,
And truer to life, and as manifold --
Life with its lyric and song with its beat
In the babble of voices and patter of feet.





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