Listen to a melody

            Until you know the tune by heart

            And every pitch by rote

 

            And then with luck

            If you’re not bored

 

            Imagine every sharp or flat,

            Each separate note,

            In whole and part,

            Reeled in and

            Simultaneously

            Struck

            To make one single-sounding

            Chord

 

            It took a while –

 

            Despite that first of nights

            When all your infinite variety,

            Reverberated to my very bones

            Dismissing time –

 

            To comprehend

            That one cannot dispense with

            Memory

            If music is desired