We were surprised and charmed to find the following submission in our Donate Now mailbox after our performance in Phoenix:

Saturday night, Feb. 2, 2013 I heard your perform in Phoenix, Az. I now know what it means to be "blown away" by a performance. I returned home and wrote a poem which I finished today and am dedicating to your group. It is my way of thanking you for the other-wordly experince you provided me. should arrive in the mail in a few days. i hope you enjoy it. Judy Levine

Yesterday the poem arrived, and here it is.  

CHANTICLEER

dedicated to Chanticleer ensemble

Not a rooster in the flock

they flew onto the stage

each settled the long tail of his black cutaway

and puffed out his gleaming white breast with

white bow at his neck.

They arranged themselves gracefully

in semi-circle

all facing toward us and

began to sing.

 

Such notes came forth from every throat

high, higher, still higher, falsetto without shrillness

mid-range, pure and fulsome,

deep, deeper, the deepest sounds felt

in the bone

that I thought myself

heaven-0bound,

believed I sat in a massive cathedral

where voices flew to the apex of the spire

taking me with them.

© JS Levine, 2013