Why did Saint-Saens
Hate Ravel so much?
Did R come before S
Mirror unto mirror?
Did the old man wince at his better self?
 
Wise men may contend
That craft consumed them both
Beyond desire
But that would instantiate a paragon falsehood.
 
We may wish
That nakedness had not eluded their better selves
But that would somehow
Negate the élan
The frisson of their Hithcockian fears
 
The pain that lurks
Beneath the beauteous surface
Of their vast metrical armoury
 
The spring like
Coil of life
Clothed in their rapturous chic:
For elegance may still  inspire
A rash regard for hard desire.
 
Gar Jones - January 2012

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