It’s a snapshot, except
before the age of the camera
yet more of a decisive moment
than any posed painting;
as any photographer,
lighting director, would see,
he’s next to you, could be
round about the fifth row back
of the stalls;
looking so straight ahead
that it doesn’t seem to be
the stage box; and it must surely be
a grand theatre, the lighting’s strong
on his white neck-stock,
his powdered hair, even catching
the lower white of his focussed eye;
he all there, he’s all here, and
attentive as a critic; the opera,
as it surely is, is playing and engages
all his faculties; and yet
there’s an appreciation
holding his lips far from the
childish joke, the poverty, the family deaths,
or even from the unimaginable creation
of music that speaks of something
deep in human hearts, speaks
of something beyond the human heart.
He’s listening to the music
as if he’d never heard it before yet
you can see it’s all inside him, too -
whatever ‘inside’ means
to genius;
it’s Mozart, there beside you
as you sketch him; as the
music you’re not watching
as you watch him and your pencil -
the music is telling you
what life’s about; and more.
Back to the sketch, with all the care you muster -
this will be the record for a thousand years
of watching Mozart listening
to the music of his self.
*
(revised)
Michael Shepherd
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-pencil-sketch-of-mozart/
