A Trick of Sunlight: Poems

Listening

Listening Sweet Reason rules the morning—what’s as sweet as Rosalyn Tureck playing Bach partitas? Midday’s for Haydn, who loved everyone (Except that pompous pig Napoleon)— Music’s Hippocrates (“First do no harm”), An Aufklärung of common sense and charm. Mozart and Schubert own the afternoon— High spirits and a Fiordiligi swoon; A sudden key change: you will die alone. The shadow that you stare at is your own. Then comes the night. Pandora’s lid is lifted, Each scene implodes before it can be shifted— Longing’s a tenor’s accurate bravura, Sex and Despair are Fach and Tessitura: And heaven’s where the mind’s sopranos sing In harmonies undreamt of in The Ring. 13 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. ...