"portrait" by Steven Schroeder

I am going to give you a new melodic conception on a tune you are familiar with...
I still recall this quaint melody as I thrill, painting my own pictures in tones...
                                                                                                   -- Charles Mingus

1

sky is radiant with diffuse blue light
red unspoken flavors blue
so pale it's almost white

yellow three times twice red blue pure light
two times yellow blue red blue red blue
sky is radiant with diffuse blue light.

you can smell the incense of it sweet
snow cold on tongue-tip blue
so pale it's almost white

dawn's pale sunset's amber light
still at the heart of it blue
sky is radiant with diffuse blue light

blue blue blue mountain red twice yellow red white
tongue-tip sweet cold snow blue
so pale it's almost white

and you can smell the incense of it sweet
snow cold on tongue-tip blue
sky is radiant with diffuse blue light
so pale it's almost white

2

it seems to me it should come
upset the world with some complex thing
from the composed heart it should come it should come

if we created some
complex out of our heads thing
it seems to me it should come

from the heart like some
old familiar song we'd sing
from the composed heart it should come it should come

a complete idea a sum
less than the whole thing
it seems to me it should come

greater than the parts some
greater than the heart-on-the-sleeve feeling
from the composed heart it should come, it should come

let my children hear music, some
familiar complex new we will sing
it seems to me it should come
from the composed heart it should come, it should come 

below: audio from Steven Schroeder & Dan Godston performing "portait," during a poetry reading at the Sulzer Library in Chicago (7/28/2012)