How Music Is Made.(Poem)

 
How MUSIC IS MADE 
for Chris 
 
   You make it and I wonder about it 
   listening to what you navigate and sound 
 
   in the midst of the orchestra with your clarinet 
   enchanted--though you may not be--by what's 
 
   around, wrapping you in a cloak, complete or torn 
   sometimes embroidered and elaborate, gold-edged 
 
   while I peer down at you from a box and note 
   your solemn face that refuses to look up but waits 
 
   on the next blown note, fingers in place 
   listening, since you're silent, to a lesser wood 
 
   a lesser storm is passing through, though 
   portents in the base show the wait 
 
   will not be long. You're needed and the horns around 
   raise their snouts like hunting animals and pounce 
 
   in ...