Day 633 of the daily poems. If you have ever been to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, you may have seen in its collection the Messiah Stradivarius, a violin made by the Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari of Cremona in 1716. It is the only Stradivarius in existence in as new state and, in the interests of conservation, it has not been played at all in recent years. All this may or may not have any bearing on this engaging poem by our poet today Alwyn Marriage. Your guess. But what a gift, what an inheritance …
Inheritance
You came as gift, unearned
but immediately adored.
You challenged me, I’ve never
owned the music that you hold
in full complexity and depth
deep in your heart
My fingers start to itch
to touch you, stroke you, wake you,
trying to discover the part of you
that holds such skill and mystery
I can dust you, clean you, close
and cover you, but still the song
is safe within; I know you will
outlast me, probably respond
to other fingers, other love than mine,
but for now and for the next few years
I’ll treasure the gift you are
and all the beauty you contain.
Alwyn Marriage