For Ruth On Her Birthday, 2015

FOR RUTH ON HER BIRTHDAY, 2015

As a kid I would read books of adventure,

life high in the riggings of a four masted ship,

the sea breeze filling my lungs, my feet

balancing on the yardarm, my eyes looking

to the far horizon, as the sea rushes below.

Saturday afternoons I often spent reading

the stories of Natty Bumppo and other

Colonial adventurers exploring and scouting

the primeval wilderness, in turn, tracked and hunted by tribes of angry Native Americans.

The lives of the composers introduced me to adventures far from the sea and forest, inspiring me at the piano to ad lib the melodies I heard

within and painstakingly transcribe them

onto bits and pieces of musical parchment.

What would I have seen standing on the yardarm and looking to the far horizon,

or found in my explorations in the American

primeval, or chasing down the melody

I heard and writing it down on parchment?

I would have seen your face on the horizon

filling the earth with light. I would have explored every feature of your body, each discovery a new wonder. The melody of your voice is that which I heard and written down on parchment.

For all of the stories which I have read,

and the many dreams they have inspired.

For all of the exotic places which have given

to me a thrill, none of them, none of them is

as great and wonderful a story as you.

© 2015. The Book Of Ruth, Deacon Bob Wagner OFS. All rights reserved.