In Memory Of A Great Man


Hear me now
Oh perfect sound,
I long to hear yet can do no more than see
Silent thunder pours from my soul
Others will hear, not me

Damn this voice!
It screams in pain
My fingers pounding against white and black keys.
I feel the music come alive
My children cry to me

Doomed to try
Again they call
’Father please create us’ the young notes will rage
I bear the torment of their birth
They thrive now on the page

Though the Sixth
I have composed
Heiligenstadt destroys the beauty in stride
And so now they will know the truth
No longer can I lie

Hear me God!
Do you not know
From your cursed gift of greatness I’m falling
In pools of darkness with no shore
Hopelessness is calling

Listen now
All those who will
I composed the Ninth, in God’s praise unsurpassed
The famed 'Ode to Joy' of Schiller
Given a voice at last

Concert halls rang
Acclaim was due
Yet bitterness was in the place of my pride
I stood and watched, then turned away
In love of song I’d tried

I now pray
To God above
Could there have been a greater hurt in my time
I beg this life be over soon
To leave sorrow behind