Poetry Corner

Because cohering is the hardest task history ever wrote...

Old Bach and young Fritz

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Last night, National Youth Poet Laurete Amanda Gorman presented her ode to Bratgirl America at the Democratic National Convention. A sample:

And make no mistake, cohering is the hardest task history ever wrote, but tomorrow is not written by our odds of hardship, but by the audacity of our hope, by the vitality of our vote.

Make no mistake, nausea soured my mouth as I plowed through the thicket of Gorman’s banalities and non sequiturs. Something had to be done to counteract the bad taste, and my first idea was to share with the Substack community three or four of my favorite X-rated limericks. But on second thought I decided to share this poem, which I wrote ten or twelve years ago.

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J.S. Bach at the Court of Frederick II of Prussia

Young Fritz bade the music cease and muttered,
“Gentlemen! Old Bach is here.” The King struck
A theme from his clavier and, with a bow,
Bade Bach improvise upon it, then sat
By his side, in an ordinary chair,
With head bent, eyes closed, prepared to listen.
The old man pondered. Then he touched a key.
And as the composer’s aged fingers
Mastered the theme the King had given him,
And teased it out, to marvelous effect—
The rolling drum and shrilling fife were stilled,
The sergeants blushed to curse the new recruits,
The flags were furled about their staffs and cased,
While to a fugue the Potsdam sentries paced.