ALBERT ROUSSEL'S ELIXIR
 (1969-1937)

A musical feast of notes
lending us a contrapuntal library

of totality in depth
in rhythmic a tonal beat

of jazz morphed into a pre beat
poet happening a century later

without Bach
or Offenbach

immersed in early token pleasures
without sentiment or regiment

but raised in bated brass
of misplaced harmony

on blank pages
from a measure divertissement

in phonetic piano potential
affording disloyalty of form

from diminished chords
in a meshed manifesto trick

containing pictures
of blues singers.