Awe

It’s all dizzyingly, amazingly
strange how waves, strings of sound –
words, melodies –
may pierce and resound.
How do combinations of vibrations
lead to ecstasies and exaltations?
How do certain musical patterns provoke fears,
how do others move one to tears,
while still others but tickle the ear
or leave me wanting to get out of here?
Questions, questions… How does a video clip
posted online three four five years ago
entrance my heart and won’t let go?
There isn’t even the physical presence
of the person or persons shown,
yet some magic (it seems) plays upon me.
How can a sack of guts, blood and bone,
how can a three-pound jelly within the skull –
how can all that unfold thoughts
that can beautify all the world,
that can set off dominoes of the world?
How is it the silence of my lover moves me so?
I don’t know – and perhaps not knowing
many a way, many a law
lends the befuddlement that waters awe.

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