Becoming Orchestral

A tribute to the

American Chamber Orchestra

Prague - August, 2005

When did I stop breathing?

Orchestra...

Feast laid before me,

passion play,

holy communion.

Ordinary people,

tee shirted,

baseball capped,

don wings of music,

take up instruments,

fly,

make triumphant

symphonic love,

 become heroes,

kings, goddesses,

seraphim.

No pale description,

no icy concept suffices.

Sacramental,

immortal concert;

drink the ensemble,

swallow the host.

Expletive completed:

notes made flesh,

 exalted to flight,

lift,

dash, soar,

plummet,

glide serene,

flutter frantic in my head,

enhanced into being.

Mind mute with grandeur,

body rushes in to play,

court,

kiss,

embrace,

wed,

be born as

one more spirited instrument.

Feeling triumphs, expands,

bubbles,

beggars thought.

Conducted elsewhere,

I become...

ORCHESTRAL.

No need to breathe…

it breathes me.

Strange...

custom demands

I applaud only with my hands

in that breathless,

soul-tingling,

moment after.

No one stands,

screams, stomps, whistles,

waves a lighter…

(Inside me the crowd goes wild!)

From Falling Into Love:

Reflections Along the Path

By Margaret Rosche

Hughes Henshaw Publications, 2005