At the Sibelius Monument, Helsinki.(Poem)

 
AT THE SIBELIUS MONUMENT, HELSINKI 
 
   Let me hear that self-determination, 
   even in defeat, like the end of the first. And the end of the fifth: 
   those vast triumphant chords, to which assent is all 
   that's not absurd. Let me never forget the silence 
   always ready to come down, in that "gaunt, 
   emaciated fourth". Or the sound of creation, continuous in seven. 
   And also what remains, the tax of all mortality, 
   that breathes of the eloquence in ageing: Surusoitto-- 
 
   And now I'm here: Those vertical metal pipes-- 
   a massive, unobtrusive imposition, 
   man-created silver birch trunks, glittering steadily. 
   Some of the bark ...