Concert Hall of Madness

Reading my song book and looking back on the songs I had written, I began to detect a theme. All the songs seemed to involve love. Either being in love, longing for love or losing a love, but they were all love. I decided I wanted to write a non-sequitur. It took me a few days to find the inspiration, but finally, I found just the thing. I was sitting in the music room at my school on a free day. We weren’t playing, so we were free to do whatever. Most everyone in the room took it upon themselves to make as much noise as they could. There seemed to be a line of people waiting to play the drum set, people were flocking to every other percussion instrument they could find, and once I saw one boy emerge with a bass guitar, I knew homework would soon not be an option. This, however, gave me the inspiration for a song, which I appropriately titled "A Concert Hall of Madness." In this song, I employ a number of metaphors and personifications to depict the scene, and it fit well with the poetry unit I was doing in my language arts class. I’m quite proud of this song.

(Written in May 2006)

Spinning world.
Spinning like a dreidel,
Watch it spin and twirl.

A human race.
Jumbled all together
in a tiny place.

People all around me
try to have a ball.
Sometimes it’s enough to
drive me up a wall.

I don’t mind that people
like to go to town.
But for just five minutes,
can’t they quiet down?

All I want is
a little peace instead
of a concert hall of madness in my head.

The day is new.
People shout their cases
‘til their faces turn blue.

Such an angry age.
People fill the roads
with their odes of endless rage.

The tones of angry trumpets
play an angry song.
The gentle flutes beg us
all to get along.

The clarinets play a
silent liturgy,
While the saxophones sit by,
Idly.

Through all the discord, all that I can find
is a concert hall of madness in my mind.

Is it such a task?
So much to ask
for a quiet night beneath the moon?
What I wouldn’t give
if people could live
in harmony, or at least in tune.

(Music phrase)

I hope I live to see the concert hall
when it celebrates its final curtain call.