Counterpoint (On hearing Cesar Franck's Symphony in D Minor)

like an organ's rich shift

from keyboard to keyboard - now the orchestra finds the theme:

a dialogue flows between strings and winds

tongues and tongues being drawn into one shape

one musical idea question and answer become

along thongs of tone a conversing, a companioning between

melodies that meet each clear layer of sound

astonished and yet flawless in the symphonic poem

there are no sins Franck's art unclothes

in call after plaintive call a single English horn -

the horn in litany a light among the strings

among the violins eurythmy is born

friend, I hear the sound of what you are

the sound of what you are ...