The Orphic Egg

for Alexander Goehr

Ever in motion, rest assured, the boy
   boring holes in his reed, bears down, joy
in the trouvaille: the poly maze maker fingers
   the stops, air streams, quivers 'breaking through the ceiling', lets his toy

   loose in flight, in chordal grids he delivers
a sonic capsule, chromatic slivers
   of lapsed durations further the ploy
                                     ever in motion

rest your case in pulsing fissures
   of subtones, a ceremonial piping that glitters
a tempo, dynamic, mood, cloy-
   proof, a gesture that finds its employ
in the plying of indrawn rivers
                                     ever in motion

*

won't you tell us the score? Before
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