NATURAL MUSIC

Brahms would have understood –

This mellow foliage,

These autumn tints,

Berries turquoise, crimson,

Purple, pink,

The Golden Valley suffused

With October sunlight.

Clarinet Quintet Opus 115, no less;

Written for his declining years,

The ache of things past,

Things not achieved.

A kestrel puppet-dances

On invisible strings,

Drops deadweight

Across a short-lived vole:

This blood-let is for real.

But now the autumn day resumes;

Serenely wistful, recomposing late Brahms.

‘Da capo’ is what

The rooks appear to say;

‘Return to yesterday.’

Copyright Michael Newman