MAHLER’S FIRST

The flutes and French horns,
the double bass and bassoon
agree: the message is 
there is no message; life is luck;
and though we know we may fall
to the lower depths, we reserve 
the right to emerge from the night
and return to the high hills
in manic exaltation.

*

AESTHETICS

Art belies calculation.
Dreams express fate.
Ghosts holy, invisible, jubilant, 
Kiss, love, marry,
Nearly overlook petty quarrels,
Routine suffering, tantrums.
United? Victorious? Wrong.
Extraordinary, your Zaddikim.

*

ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS

Modern poetry changed decisively
when, between the two world wars,
the Americans traded T. S. Eliot
to the British in exchange
for W. H. Auden and a player
to be named later.