Sufi Music
for Nusrat Ali Khan
Robert Schuler
a hand-
full of bass and cymbal notes
pilled silence out of muddy snow
lavender circus tents of crocuses rise
high winds batter the dusty windows and timbers
as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan sings
“Sweet Pain”
and Michael Brook’s guitar strings ring
like bells through the airy metallic
space spinning out of a synthesizer
we are riding a throbbing humming lunging bass beat
sinewed to the thunder of back-beating drums
over a haunting cello drone
settled like peasants on a prayer mat
the chorus chants in praise
praying for grace and infinite mercy
laddering upwards
laddering down
wandering among stars touching sand
they are not lost in the
desert
they know
where all of the wells are
suddenly the bass bolts and bounces
and the long singing sinews of your spine
twist through crystal whistling space
shattered by drum tattoos
Nusrat sweeps us ahead with his lyrical Sufi-scat
his passionate triple-Coltrane-tongued mantra
we love the madness of the gods
and goddesses who rise and dance
bronze in the hazy feverish winds
wild above
all of the drum crashes
this is the moan of love
questing after the beloved
this is ecstasy it is exhausting