Clair de Lune

The lightest note breaks
space with crystal notes and takes
my breath away, like snowflakes

spinning around my free-
falling soul. Piano keys
reverberate and echo in D,

cascading angst-filled arpeggios
in a swelling tide of melancholia,
a swirling musical oceanus.

A spree of naked notes delights
peaking into rolling notes
of sadly serious moonlight.

And when it’s over, silence glistens
with spectral music – listen!

Kim M. Russell, 5th December 2023

I’m hosting the dVerse Poets Pub Poetics this Tuesday with an instrumental music prompt. I chose to write a poem about ‘Clair de lune’ by Claude Debussy.

55 thoughts on “Clair de Lune”

  2. Oh this is absolutely stunning work done, Kim! 😍 I especially admire this part; ” Piano keys
    reverberate and echo in D, cascading angst-filled arpeggios in a swelling tide of melancholia.” Yes ❤️❤️

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  3. It’s such a haunting, ethereal piece. Every time I listen to it, it stays in my head for days.
    (It was in All the Light We Never See, among other things.)

    You capture the feeling
    “cascading angst-filled arpeggios
    in a swelling tide of melancholia,
    a swirling musical oceanus.”

    And the glistening notes at the end.

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    1. Thank you, Merril. I’ve loved this piece for a long time. It was also in Twilight; it was Edward Cullen’s favourite and he played it to Bella when he first got to know her. I remember it in All the Light We Cannot See.

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  12. I like Clair de Lune, it is peaceful. “Piano keys reverberate and echo in D” makes me want to get out my music text book and find it. I had two semesters of college class piano, even learned how to transpose. Right now I couldn’t even play “Bill Grogan’s Goat”. We do have a spinet piano, spoken for, a great grandchild when she is ready for lessons.
    ..

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  17. I have been away from home most of today, just now catching up. I consider it “a great minds” kind of thing that we both chose the same piece of music. From the millions and millions of choices. Your poem captures what the piece is all about and it is gorgeous.

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  19. I love the composition, and I adore how you translated the rhythm in your line breaks. The image of a “sadly serious Moon” feels very powerful, and I think all poems about any music should end in an invitation, a beckon if you will, to listen.
    Thank you likewise for hosting such an inspiring prompt!

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