Thursday Poem

What is a clarinet but a straw through which the universe
draws lamentations and joy from a broken vessel? —Anonymous
.

Clarinet

She’s a voice, they say
but when did you hear a human voice
sing such grace

in baroque quintets and ragtime bands alike?

lilt through the ornaments
and lament with so much reason?
glow

like a low star
then slide on up and scatter notes
far and wide, a firework
under the blackwood skies of the Jazz Age?

This is the world as sung to you by a long-
serving, sensible
weary angel

compassionate after all she’s seen but
not deceived.

Her saddest song
has a whisper deep inside
of translunary laughter:

the sorrows of all the people of all the world
shadow the phrases
she makes dance.

And with such sweet tears
– you realise
when it’s too late – she sings

that same old song again
for you, distingué lovers
so newly met in the garden

by Judith Taylor
from
The Open Mouse
12/12/217