"Night in the Tropics" (1858-59?)

Lack of listeners did not deter Louis Moreau Gottschalk, living on

the edge of a Guadeloupe volcano in 1859, from giving piano recitals

to the universe.

Edmund Morris, ""The Romance of the Piano"

Assuming rain, the exotic

species flare up like gas-flames

released from the earth, then settle on hibiscus

branches as the arpeggios shower down.

But the blossoms remain dry, their wings

dry, and only the spattering

notes keep them pinned to their trees, leaves

and insects blending in infinite

varieties.

And the birds who pluck rare

butterflies from air, not finding them there,

assume nightfall, so return to their nests,

tongues stiff, though the sun slips

its staff of light through the canopies,

& so on

upward through the great chain of being, all

the bird-eating snakes, the snake-eating

birds, till the selection seems to halt,

Louis Moreau Gottschalk

slightly unnerved as he swabs the moisture

from the strings, shuts the lid of the Chickering,

then steps from the terrace into his room

to allow the universe to resume.