the ephemeral can be spectacular

Annie

art is creation, and destruction,

I have long felt that a play, a musical,

is ephemeral, a creation like the mayfly,

that lives a day and then is gone:

props, costume, lines, song, music,

exist but to help a moment happen,

to deepen the moment, 

to broaden the moment,

to help belief in story hold us in her arms,

and then, too soon, the story is over,

and a new moment will soon have its time,

tonight, Annie, the musical, lived,

and the audience was captivated by the pieces

coalescing into a whole that held them, moved them,

the darkness that seeks to swallow the light,

driven back by each kid on stage, transformed,

who demanded and created a fire of self,

within the blaze of a story that worked,

helped by each stitch, each brush stroke, 

each idea that strode forth, 

all became tool to enable the story to live,

the individual needs to shine, and shines brightest

when a collective needs each flame,

when the collective finds the way for each flame

to be a firework and together crescendo into the spectacular.

by Henry H. Walker
February 14, ‘20