A Musical Conversation

            by Ted Guhl


    We sat up late into the evening,
    harmonising about self expression.

    You, with your firm grasp of western
    psychology wondered if non-doing
    might also mean non-expression.
    Everyone dreams, you said, and everyone
    Conceals their fears. How do we free ourselves
    from the nightmares of the dark mind
    unless we learn to sing those dreams
    and fears?

    I, improvising on the Tao, said that we are
    living Buddha's bubble existence. I questioned
    if a pure enough music wouldn't just absorb it all?
    Or perhaps, if we were truly in the moment
    of song, all the sounds of discord
    might not really exist.

    Today, I marvel at the clarity of that duet.
    Two souls, in contrapuntal conversation,
    playing the music of intelligence and love on
    two different instruments. What wonderful music.

    Now I am relearning to play solo. You, one imagines,
    are rehearsing new compositions.

    My improvisations
    tend to the saxophone, rifts exploring the
    intermingled notes of tears and laughter.

    I wait, impatient with anticipation, to hear the
    sounds of your new duet.

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