The Sound of Light

A poem

"Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart."

— Pablo Casals, Spanish-Puerto Rican cellist, composer & conductor

Sonido de la Luz

Remembering Pablo

He understood. Each of us is a pulse

of sound, scrap of cadence, shaky rhythm

doubting itself, random song sputtering along

in the redwood duff. What he did was

listen to himself. Who does that?

He rapped and rattled, playing it all out,

sending himself ahead of himself.

Among the waves glittering, chewing away

cliffs off Trinidad, a thrumming, a ringing,

currents of sound, water, light.

If you close your eyes, someone might hear

you singing.