Joan Benner
Violin Music
Above the formal dress the face is light,
the fluent wrist lifts clear of the dark sleeve.
Perfection is a momentary state:
sounds slip through fingers, won’t consolidate;
this is time’s sculpture, streamlike, on the move.
Above the formal dress the face is light
to shed establishment; so birds migrate
and, calligraphic, leave a vanished curve.
Perfection is a momentary state
the player knows, but need not contemplate,
hard driving down the soundtrack of the stave.
Above the formal dress the face is light
with lightness out of flight: reborn, elate,
day’s mayfly quaver springs its husk, alive.
Perfection is a momentary state,
shimmers and passes. Instant, the incomplete
completes and dies. Delight knows how to grieve.
Above the formal dress the face is light:
perfection is a momentary state.
Page(s) 20
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