Poetry straight from the asylum

Some Sundays I go to classical concerts after class, in the BYU Center for Jerusalem Studies on Mount Scopus. Yeah, I was surprised the Mormons had their own center, too, but they do, and on prime real estate as well. It's an extremely nice place with well-manicured lawns and fountains outside, and nice wood-paneled rooms with vaults in Jerusalem limestone. The main auditorium has a huge organ and an amazing view over the Old City. The place is also filled with kindly white-haired, well-dressed Mormons with clear American accents, which is just so funny to me. Of course I hear American accents all day, in the dorms and in school, but outside those two places I expect to hear people speaking Hebrew or another language at all times. The Center just seems so out of place in Jerusalem because it is so utterly normal, like someone dropped a mild-mannered elderly church administration into the Middle East, who just continued to operate as if nothing had changed.

Anyway, they put on pretty good classical concerts for free, usually with Israeli musicians, so I try to go regularly. I was especially looking forward to last night, since it featured a choir and a string quintet. It was definitely the best I've been to, some good Bach Cantatas and they even had one of those really old-school pianos that they play in Baroque music. The ones that sound very tinkly and dainty. I don't know how else to describe it. But I wonder how they got a hold of one of those. They actually broke out the organ, too, and the choir did a song called Rejoice in the Lamb, composed by Benjamin Britten. I've played Britten before, so I thought it'd be cool, but I was listening to the lyrics, and they were a little out there. The center had conveniently provided us with a copy in our program, so I took a look, and I kid you not, here were a couple of the verses:

For I will consider my cat Jeoffrey.
For he is the servant of the Living God.
Duly and daily serving him.

He goes on about the cat:

For I am possessed of a cat,
Surpassing in beauty,
From whom I take occasion
To bless Almighty God.

Then mice come in:

For the Mouse is a creature
Of great personal valour.
For this is a true case--
Cat takes female mouse,
Male mouse will not depart,
but stands threat'ning and daring.
If you will let her go,
I will engage you,
As prodigious a creature as you are.

Then my favorite:

For H is a spirit, And therefore he is God.
For K is king, And therefore he is God.
For L is love, And therefore he is God.
For M is music, And therefore he is God.

Solid apologetics there. I still haven't figured out why "H" is a spirit. It's possible that that lettering thing has some religious meaning I'm not aware of, and to be fair the other verses were fairly standard glory of God, Hallelujah, non-crazy fare, but I don't know how Jeoffrey the cat got in there. Then I looked at the paragraph before the lyrics. The lyrics were a poem composed by 18th-century poet Cristopher Smart, who "was in an insane asylum when he wrote it." So nice when there's a reasonable explanation.

They had decorated Christmas trees and a Nativity scene in the Center too. Made me want to go home for Christmas. Leora found the other instrument featured in the program, the faggot, extremely amusing. :)