Poet Laureate Ted Kooser in Syracuse
"Community Life in Poetry"
a year of poetry, a day of celebration, a constant community voice

Poetry Partnerships

Indian River High School
Kristie Fuller's Theatre Classes with poet Marj Hahne

Final Poems

What the Music Wants

What the music wants
Is a ZYXWV
you
underneath the microscope
splayed out on a slide
all your letters
jumbled
tumbled
What the music wants
is an unholy prayer sent by innocent hands
lighting, chiseling the clouds
climax
of a god I want to know
What the music wants
is a crucifix
nails driven in the hands of
homophobia
misogyny
racism
cadence laden with love
a jitterbug Michelangelo and my mom
doing the Cuddle the Underarm Turn
What the music wants
is a swing, a fling, a ring
swish at the buzzer
What the music wants
is the concordance of the glazed and the filled
consumed by labels
my inner-pose surprised inside an
intra-pose inside an
inter-pose
What the music wants is
A flopper, bopper, a copper-plated whopper, Cindy Lauper, Gopper
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD stop her
What the music wants
is an emotional
Combustion
of love
played and
replayed
before your
eyes
What the music wants
Is a scrambled heart
flat lines
Rewinds
flat line spikes the beat
~Dead Poets Society