Mark Turbyfill

From “Voluntaries”

HOW shall I capture

Sound and desire?

Let candor stir upon candor

As sword upon sword,

Tempering the tenor and the timbre

Of this sweet ecstasy.

Grieved is my mind,

Harassed by music

Untouched of any sound.

Yet on trellis, on infinite arch,

On bridges of fretted iron—

Frail to thought, acrid to sight,

Thunderous with traffic of men—

Red-budding, peach-petalled

Beauty flames into view.

But how shall I capture

Sound and desire?

How shall I hear

The pointed vagaries,

The evanescent harmonies,

That float unfingered

Across the strings of the mind?

How shall I hear,

Plucked from the intangible mind-strings,

The song desire sings, and sings?

There is no create instrument.