Some poems ask to be read. These ask to be played.

Violin: Opus Poetica is the debut collection of Larry Donnell Washington, a symphony composed in verse. Its seven movements and coda cross the full range of human experience, from the ache of unrequited love to the thunder of biblical prophecy. Washington writes in rhyme and meter, in a King James register, with the gravity of the Psalms and the raw immediacy of confession.

The movements are Violet and Blue; Mourning Before Morning; Psalms of America; Beethoven and The Rapture; Sin and Redemption; J'écris des poèmes; and Libretto: Lamenting Jerusalem, closing with a Coda, The Pergola Tunnel. Each is a distinct emotional landscape, and all are bound by the resonance of a single instrument held close to the heart.

Here is longing rendered in twilight hues. Here is the fierce love of fatherhood and the shadow of loss. Here is faith wrestled with and held onto. Here is the street corner beside the sanctuary, temptation beside reckoning, set down without flinching. And here, in the seventh movement, is a dramatic poem that renders the fall of Jerusalem in the language of Ezekiel and Lamentations, from the siege of Nebuchadnezzar to the valley of dry bones.

This is formal verse written to be spoken aloud, in a voice that orchestrates the human experience across grief and grace, shadow and light.

It opens on a whisper and ends in thunder.

Contains depictions of violence, including violence against a child, as well as war, death, and mature themes.