A POEM


by Charles Wyatt
1st Flute - Nashville Symphony
Poet - Horizon Press


Noble bassoon,
Night singer,
Frightener of swans
And canaries.
If the indolent ape,
Babboon,
Sits, thick
In the thick
Of your somber
Caroling,
And abuses himself,
Snarl not,
Yield not,

Each note
Swelling like a pumpkin,
A weightless pumpkin
Of delight--
And it will be
That when the oak leaves
Scratch last I
n barren fields, And the earth
Is scoured
Of fox and worm,
You will lament us,
Singing alone.

No one will hear
You sing
The Shadow in,
And it may be
A new dawn will come
And life again
Will flourish,
Following
The fleeing
Shadow,
Oh noble bassoon,
Tragic bassoon,
Impossible
Bassoon.


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