Glen Sorestad is a long-time Saskatoon
poet whose most recent collection is called A Thief of Impeccable
Taste (Sand Crab Books, 2011). His latest book, a bilingual English/Spanish
volume, was launched in Havana in February. He is a recent recipient
of an Order of Canada (2010) and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012).
|
|
©
2012
Glen Sorestad
Afternoon Amati Recital
At the Amati Quartet recital the man
sitting alongside me is a birder—
apt seat mates, we are, one who has tried
to capture winged creatures with the fine eye
of expensive binoculars, while the other
seeks to make a bird's heart beat in a poem.
The bird man tells me he is prodding
a massive bird book towards fruition,
nudging it to flight as a mother her fledglings
to take that final step from the nest.
As the Amati strings soar into celestial heights
of Haydn's 1793 Opus 74 in F major
for string quartets, the bird man and I
are winging through the rarefied air of two violins,
viola and cello, priceless Amati instruments,
the pieces assembled with consummate care
by a gifted Italian family three centuries ago,
these exquisite sounds holding us
aloft on wings soft as breath,
stirring as the lips of love.
|
