The Steiner Lyre

I read this poem on the ABC on 14 August 2012.   Eliza Hull (Australian Poetry) and I were interviewed in a program on Cafe Poets in Residence.

she's playing
the Steiner lyre
to this child
who cannot yet talk
but understands

he fixes
his small black eyes
on her face-
flays his dimpled legs
and tiny hands

the music's
pitched at 442
appropriate
for little ones
so the experts say

tuning note
for celestial songs -
she tells us -
music of the spheres -
a smidgeon past A

words skeptics
might discredit
or jeer at -
but she speaks with grace
and childlike belief -

inspired by
ancient parables -
she looks for
forgotten lessons
that might hide beneath

do we sense
the scent of petals -
cherry blooms
as soft as the skin
on his fingertips

can we see
a young musician
years ahead
catching songs that drift
from his father's lips

at the end
she packs up the lyre -
formally
farewells us - stepping
back and bowing low

leaving us
in echoes of song -
wondering
what the secret is
she and the baby know


© Hazel Hall
7 May 2012