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The Morning of Glenn Gould's Funeral
Hearing him now on the car stereo --
That's as he wished it when alive --
I look for browsing deer, and slow
For the tight down-curves as I drive
Through deep oak shadows
Over the back way to Ojai.
The October day burns quiet bright and dry
In the brown meadows.
The thing he's playing's a rocky-riffl
ed clear
Mountain stream of a piece by Bach:
The bright quick-moving length of it's here
Along with sun and oak and rock
O brief survival
Glittering in the light and air
And in the dark unbreakable silence there
The new arrival.