Parsifal’s Passage

Each nighttime’s stopping
A valuation,
A ritual passage
Of validation. 

The journey itself
A sufficiency,
Confirming the Fool’s
Authenticity. 

Once there were four,
Now there are three,
Parsifal nightly sets
Amfortas free.  

The score is set down,
Inviolate. 
The cast assembles
As if by fate.  

The trustworthy conductor
Knows the score. 
Each interlude enacts
What it is for. 

The singers hear the style,
So each act lifts. 
Every action marshals
Its own myths. 

Parsifal’s passage,
Atonement,
Finds in the wandering
Whate’er is meant. 

 
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Walt Whitman and the Phrenology of Murder

Set against the backdrop of antebellum Manhattan and Brooklyn, this historical mystery mixes sexual mores, politics, music, poetry, and the science of Phrenology in a compelling portrait of a transitional time.