Bosnia & Herzegovina 712
(issued 12-9-2016)
Erik Satie Plays Harmonium
by Santiago Rusiñol (1890)
Le Chat Noir
12 Rue Victor-Massé


Music of Erik Satie

Music echoes down the street
at Montmartre in Paris
where Erik Satie is playing
the piano at Le Chat Noir.

In this crowded cabaret
musicians, artists, poets
have gathered to converse
with William Blake's paradise.

Apollinaire is here writing
his concrete poem "Il Pleut"—
raindrops falling vertically
down the page— pouring it on.

Debussy tapping his fingers—
drinking a glass of wine,
composing "Prelude to
the Afternoon of a Faun".

At another table sketching
on notepads are Picasso
and Braque— paradigm
shifts in art to cubism.

I'm the kitchen dishwasher
soaking with soap bubbles—
don't know the patrons who
come here to this café.

Satie plays Gymnopédies
a cabaret favorite encore—
ah the music stirs my soul
and I'm uplifted to heaven.

— Peter Y. Chou
     Mountain View, 1-24-2022
France B355
Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918)
(issued 5-22-1961)


France B87
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
(issued 6-5-1939)


Spain 2109
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
(issued 9-29-1978)


Central Africa 1440c
Georges Braque (1882-1963)
(issued 7-23-2002)


Soap Bubbles in the Kitchen