Sorrows of the King, by Dave Moreland

Sorrow of the King, by Henri Matisse (France) 1952

​Sorrows of the King
 
Solomon remembers, as many years
have raced away, his sadness.
He cherishes this golden music, still
serenely echoing, as Autumn returns.
 
The last precious blossoms yet
cling, adorning his ebony shroud.
He leans back, listening now
in a swirl of feathery tonalities.
 
His dancer spins and twirls in
a monumental garden of delights.
She appears miraculously, like a
phoenix, spinning toward immortality.
 
The witness reaches skyward, astonished,
trying to capture this radiant moment.
The horizontal solidity of earthly 
gravity, overcome by this performance.
 
The sorrows of the king are lifted
aloft and scattered by favorable winds.
His last days gifted with beauty,
in a colourful syncopated orchestration.

Dave Moreland

Dave Moreland graduated from the University of Iowa and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He retired from a career teaching art and art history, after teaching at the University of Idaho, Maryland Institute College of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, and several community colleges. He has written poetry off and on, over his entire life.  He lives in rural Frederick County, Maryland.