What Is Eternal

(“I cannot die upon this night”
The composer did protest
“For I must complete my Tenth Symphony
Before my final rest”

Backwards
Till he fell into his chair
And searched his mind for a reply
But there were no answers there

And the Devil said “I see
That your mind is quite confused
So I will return here in one hour
For the answer that you choose
And you can tell me then
What you will keep and what you will lose

The hands of the clock rotate backwards from midnight to eleven PM

So tell me now what do you fear
What do you love or hold too dear
Is it death well wrapped in pain?
Or perhaps it’s no one will remember your name?
If this is so, perhaps I cannot win
But then add pride onto your other sins

I am not trying to pressure you
I know you cannot decide yet
But nothing focuses the mind my friend
Like the approach of one’s own death”

And as he turned to disappear
Into his personal abyss
Beethoven called for him to wait
For something was now amiss

The hands upon the clock
It seems were moving much too fast
And at this rate his hour gift
Would not an hour last

“Consider it a final act of kindness”
Over his shoulder the Devil did call
“Because where you are going my dear Ludwig
The clocks they never, move, at all”

Mephistopheles disappears back into the abyss through a hole in the floor that opens up to receive him

With Mephistopheles gone
The spirits silently crept back
And watched the great composer agonize
Over the time that he now lacked

So in this room now filled with shadows
Beethoven stood quite alone
And contemplated how to save
The one thing he truly ever owned

Could all the wisdom he had found
Like so many leaves upon the ground
Combine with all his dreams and sins
And on this night be scattered to the wind

For of our faith they are so insistent
With gods who are so inconsistent
And if we are to further delve
Into this night and find ourselves
Might we discover in our past
What in our lives might one day last)

(BEETHOVEN)

And here in the night
As I feel the inferno
I stare in the dark
Thinking what is eternal

The man or the moment
The act or the reason
These thoughts fill my head
As I contemplate treason

Of dreams I have had
And dreams I have pondered
When late in the night
My mind it would wander

To things I have done
And then quickly regretted
While denying vices
My life had selected

And I think what I've done
Or have yet to begin
And the man I've become
And the man that I've been

Now caught in a waltz
With the eternal dancer
I'm courted by death
But death isn't the answer
I say

All I was
Meant to be
Could I
Suddenly
Just decide
Not a thought
Would survive
Could it be
My life's worth
Ended there
With my birth

If I could see someone
Who's been there before me
And traded his soul
For a moment of glory

His penance or mercy
By spirits debated
While judged on a scale
That's been heavily weighted

And what have I done
Could there be such a sin
In this man I've become
In this man that I've been

Now calling to god
From the pit's very bottom
I pray he forgives
Every sin I've forgotten
This day

And who would have thought
That my fate it would conjure
This twist in the road
On which I have wandered

Each vision and dream now
Completely dismembered
To give one's whole life
And find nothing's remembered

And what good is a life
That leaves nothing behind
Not a thought or a dream
That might echo in time

The years and the hours
The seconds and minutes
And everything that
My life has placed in it
Betrayed
Betrayed
Betrayed

The things I have done
The places I've been
The cost of my dreams
The weight of my sins

And everything that
I've gathered in life
Could it be lost
Could it be lost in this
Could it be lost in this
Night