Dear Gustave, Dear Adrian


In the end naivete lies at the bottom of being, all being, even the most conscious and complicated. (Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus)

Spun in the seams of light
Parting the clouds of sight,
We see the vision of man
Decayed by his own destiny.

Just as we want to look
Past our own self to the book
We create, history stands astride
Our vision of all humanity.

Marking time in the closeness
Of all this academic business,
You live the passion of words,
I, the music of eternity.

Each of us frames our genius
In the light of those around us,
Spinning our artful inspirations
Outward with eternal creativity.

Grasping the slender threads
Of light that become mere beads,
We part from our original vision
As we reach for infinity.

Crushed by the weight of eons
We join the good Europeans,
Falling evermore downward while
Creating our world's modernity.

(Music Lessons, 1991)