Poetry Magazine

Doug Tanoury

USA

dtanoury1@home.com

East Grand Boulevard

Lined with run-down and ram-shackled centers for assisted living

And aging mansion in various states of disrepair and dereliction

A city street in faded glory

Where old people sit on wide front porches

Talking together on summer afternoons in late August

Watching the traffic pass as they had in June

Until the sun sets across the street

Behind the building with a burned out roof

And beyond the elms in full foliage

Until they are taken in

Still talking in low voices

Soft as the sunset colors

That paints the purple sky in twilight

And fade slowly into silence

As darkness grows

-Doug Tanoury 9-2-00

Missa Aeterna Christi Mumera

And as she talked to me

I thought that the sound of her voice

Was closer to song than normal speech

And I no longer listened to what she said

The words lost all meaning

But only retained the qualities of sound

Pitch and tone

Note and timbre

I heard the melody of phrase

The music in each sentence

In conversation that moved

Like a concerto progressing

Through movements

And I was charmed as she talked

As if she spoke a medieval chant

In Latin resplendent and sacred

Echoing from vaulted ceilings and

Walls articulated in arched windows

Flowering pilasters

All held toward heaven

By wide marble columns

With Corinthian capitols

And it must be so when the angels

Talk to God

Their voices so sweet

He must be distracted

-Doug Tanoury 8-26-00

© All Copyright, Doug Tanoury.
All Rights Reserved. Printed By Permission.