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                I turned my body—in place,
As would a dancer at the apex
                Of a saut—from the darkness.
There was a sense of motion
        That I could not define, and then
A cataclysm : the totality of sound
        Seemed to crash in on me, first the
Jangle of a struck mandolin
        Hung quivering in space, then in an
Instant a confluence of strings
        That seemed to light disparate fires
In the murk ; following, a colossal
        Blow upon the piano that recoiled
Darkly into its own lower register,
        Held at once within a structure of
Thunderous drums and bright cymbals.
     As these colliding elements began to
Galvanise they were utterly overcome
    By an inchoate, monstrous howling
Of wordless voices and saxophones :
    A mordant and dissonant tide of
Ululating noise like the expression of
    Some primal and ineluctable force.
    It was as if I had been addressed
    From the obscurity by the very anima
    Of the universe, in an unmediated
    Language that I could not hope
    To comprehend. The dark seemed to
            Swell and prickle with far lights.