Winter Crack

Saint Paul, 7 April 2005

For Rudi Dietrich

In dreams

I wrote of your hands

How they appear

At rest in photographs

The lines of this poem

Clutch at stillness

Like rooting fingers

Of lodgepole pine

Sleeping voices

Await a fateful fire

To shed a serotinous seal

The hand-rubbed sheen

Becomes your cello’s belly

Although a winter crack

Moderates your morale

A brittle twig

Becomes your bow

You look at me

From the f-holes of

The inner bark, the grain

Justified like the curve

Of catgut paused

To resonate

Notes:

Serotinous seal refers to a pinecone or other seed case

that requires heat from a fire to open and release the seed.