Tito Lessi’s Galileo and Viviani. 1892
One of Those Days
The Atlas of the World
Inside
Outside the mind
But more than that
More than just maps and histories
The Atlas of the World as if
It were made for you
And you remake it every third or fourth hour
With time off for good behavior
An explosion of mirth overtakes the symphony
Then ideal pain
And ideal questions
An onslaught of daring never imagined
Before or since
A judgment day
A carnival
A tent for their tropes
Their troops of artists and saints
Your sinister rodeo
The eleventh dimensional map unfurled
Like a catastrophe on the boulevard
Before the barricades go up
Before Paris is ripe
Or Prague sees a new Spring
by Douglas Pinson
I like this. It seems to have a good music-drama slant, clued in by “symphony” but also “baracades” and “ripe Paris” (hinting if you want it to at Les Miserables) — in other words, speaking with vision but some simplicity, from a stage to and for a like-minded and knowing, responsive and responsible audience, and in this sense a public voice.
Les Miserables is a good catch. Thanks for your comment, Robert.