A BIRTHDAY FOR SIBELIUS
(DEC. 8. 1865)

In the chorus
with three lyrical
songs
for Sibelius
on his birthday
we land
with our plane
watching out a window
on sunny horizons
in his beloved country
among the vast fields
of snow on a birch
past a branch of birds
imagining a tundra swan
in a musical wonderland
with a composer's repertory
glowing on Finland's Arctic sky
from a cast shadow
of this critic's words.