30 | "The sonata as a boat" [pantoum]

This would be a good day to go sailing
this would be a fine time to tune fiddles
there's little wind   I wouldn't call it galing
there's questions   in the form of cozy riddles
this would be a fine time to tune fiddles
if only one were schooled in how to play
there's questions   in the form of cozy riddles
they need small answers or petite dismay

if only one were schooled in how to play
concertos and sonatas would be beckoning
they need small answers or petite dismay
a smile or yawn   a sense of idle reckoning
concertos and sonatas would be beckoning
the audience all hushed up in the rafters
a smile or yawn   a sense of idle reckoning
at every phrase   a promise of hereafters

the audience all hushed up in the rafters
the sonata as a boat amid its blueness
at every phrase   a promise of hereafters
the schertzo fills with tales of olden newness
the sonata as a boat amid its blueness
mightn't the painting finally find unveiling?
the schertzo fills with tales of olden newness
this would be a good day to go sailing



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This poem's first line is borrowed the following passage of Ann Lauterbach's poem "Tangled Reliquary":

This would be a good day to go sailing
Or to wash the car, but I have
Neither boat nor car. There's a plotless web
In the air like a banner pulling us along
Into something to look back on. . . .

from Clamor (1991)

This is no. 30 in a sequence, Early Autumn Pantoums