keepin' on Fontegaia...

9       
                          for Phoebe

 
In the rattle of the restless uncertain business
down the street, up the street   questions
the soul, then : chance, or Providence?
I was lucky last Saturday   a willing witness

 
ushered into my (free) place (father of the usher)
4th row, Lincoln Center   Emanuel Ax, playing
Beethoven's 5th Concerto   with playful bearing
of a rollicking bear   who's found the honeycomb

 
there   and when 10 fingers lift from pounding octaves
and tremolo of tender  haunting trills   he turns
rolling on his bench   hearkening   smiles   breathes
in the violins   sweet   master of intricate delight

 
So   glancing at the Times this morning   noted
photo of distant galaxy   in the shape of a nippled
breast   and thought of the Milky Way   the principle
of designation   human signs   for the remote

 
ongoing mutter   of dark matter   but I think this
dancing bear   has found the honeycomb indeed
in the dome-nest   of the turtle-home   the secret Law
of setting-free   (between gloomy ax   and the kiss

 
of Pax   the pact   in the mosaic   in the fresco
in the sign   of Siena)   yes   this old geezer
(Old Faithful)   this old hobo too   insouciant
slouch-hat rambler   found his Lincoln icon (imago)

 
where the stereopticon of the spiritual war
between time and Providence   is resolved   as when
a magnifying glass   pours sunlit fire   into a thin
green blade of grass   as from a deep well-jar