Long Walk North

The Flaneur walks for miles in sandals,

having refused to enter the perplex
of public transportation re-routed by some smug footrace,

to reach symphonic moments in a church North of the Estuary

1.
Lakeside

A lovely day for walking neither hot nor cold,

The charming desuetude of the old urban center

A twenty foot fanlight from yesteryear

Immense clouds stacked over Lake Merritt

View from courthouse plaza

This indigo flower sends me

The color here approaches what the eye sees

In direct sunlight photos come out thus

Lovely but somewhat washed-out color

This is what I'm talking about... kind of,

The largest planting of this flowering shrub I've seen

The roadway was half closed and as I walked here

An absurd solitary pooped-out runner came by

Accompanied by her own police car crawling behind

As she cleared an incline I called, "You got it, baby"

She seemed to weaken, slowed to a walk

 Eucalyptus de-contextualized by its own shade

A beautiful girl in a sexy swim suit

Was having her photo taken by a small crew,

Afterward she changed in a little nylon booth 

Concealment making her even more charming,

Dreams are made of this

A journey of a thousand steps

Made fascinating by the abundant sky

Scottish Rites Temple

Another colossal artifact of secular quasi-religion

Appropriate for this Sunday in Lent,

A Jerusalem pine,

Saint Paul's must be just around the bend

2.

Saint Paul's Episcopal Church

They made him look very Jewish, 

Paul was a demagogue at the stoning of Stephen,

Both are Baptismal names of mine,

I had an ass-kick Damascus experience myself,

Mary Fabilli said I was a martyr, seriously

High windows, 

The Prometheus orchestra tunes up

The second piece is the heart of the concert for me

An Adagio by Mahler

The conductor describes it as spiritual,

As evocative of thoughts of one's past

One was able to feel elevated to the level of rapture,

A strange final dissonant note not withstanding,

Some prescience of the difficult listening to come

Lamb of God

You take away the sins of the World

 Grant us Peace

The concert resumed with

Manuel de Falla's "Three-Cornered Hat"

Balletic dance themes, the uplift of Spring

 

Blessing all who come into His house,
Whether they know it or not

To everything there is a season, 

And straight is the gate 

To the great outdoors

Time for me to climb back into the boat

With the good Saint Timothy

The clouds over the Estuary had altered themselves

A higher strata prevails, a cooler front came in,

Seagulls circle at various altitudes,

Somehow connected in a vast mobile 

22 March 2015