A note to Orpheus
When the wind rises
the tree sings
with the rustle
and tremor of leaves
and as the wind subsides
so the music is lost
to stillness to silence :
then birds congregate
in its branches
and the tree becomes
a temple to their song
the tree that so longed
to possess a voice
provides a haven
a home for these
visiting choristers
And a tree knows
that music is as much
about silence as it is
about sound
it is about the interplay
between notes and rests
between the black
and the white and
between life and death
all on a stave
John Lyons