Jonathan Fisher
The Music I Remember
"For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning,
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts."
–T.S. Eliot
I hear those same notes
Which I heard
For the first time
Years ago
In my mind's ear.
The memory wells up
Like oil
In my finger's tips,
Giving them grace to glide
Like daredevil virtuosos
Up and down the black
Path that leads to sound.
But not just any old noise is made.
Rather it is the pre-school
Cacophony of my childhood days.
I hear the crackling of the leaves
When the bow meets the string
And cool winds stir the children's feet.
I begin to play
And my peers dance around me.
It is this drunken innocence
That I miss. Smiles,
Concertos written for laughter
Swim about
In pools of reminiscence
Before my eyes.
There is a bliss that present
Shares with past
And it is manifest in the music
I remember.