Lost Poem by gershon hepner

I hear the notes leap from the page
into my heart
and make it rhythmically rage
while we’re apart.
The sounds we once together heard
now make me hold
my breath, for I can hear the word
that once you told
me. “Love, ” you said is what you felt
for me when we
first heard these sounds that made us melt
then, musically.
The notes would die if never played,
as our love died
because we let our feelings fade,
and chose to hide.


Inspired by “Old Wicked Songs, ” by Jon Marans, a play written around Schumann’s Dichterlieder.

10/30/97