<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><p style="margin-block: 1.5rem 0px; max-width: var(--wp--style--global--content-size); font-size: 22px; margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important;">Listening to the Koln Concert </p><p style="margin-block: 1.5rem 0px; max-width: var(--wp--style--global--content-size); font-size: 22px; margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important;">After we had loved each other intently,<br>we heard notes tumble together,<br>in late winter, and we heard ice<br>falling from the ends of twigs.</p><p style="margin-block: 1.5rem 0px; max-width: var(--wp--style--global--content-size); font-size: 22px; margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important;">The notes abandon so much as they move.<br>They are the food not eaten, the comfort<br>not taken, the lies not spoken.<br>The music is my attention to you.</p><p style="margin-block: 1.5rem 0px; max-width: var(--wp--style--global--content-size); font-size: 22px; margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important;">And when the music came again,<br>late in the day, I saw tears in your eyes.<br>I saw you turn your face away<br>So that others would not see.</p><p style="margin-block: 1.5rem 0px; max-width: var(--wp--style--global--content-size); font-size: 22px; margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important;">When men and women come together,<br>how much they have to abandon. Wrens<br>make their nests of fancy threads<br>and string ends, animals</p><p style="margin-block: 1.5rem 0px; max-width: var(--wp--style--global--content-size); font-size: 22px; margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important;">abandon all their money each year.<br>What is it that men and women leave?<br>Harder than wren’s doing, they have<br>to abandon their longing for the perfect.</p><p style="margin-block: 1.5rem 0px; max-width: var(--wp--style--global--content-size); font-size: 22px; margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important;">The inner nest not made by instinct<br>will never be quite round,<br>and each has to enter the nest</p><p style="margin-block: 1.5rem 0px; max-width: var(--wp--style--global--content-size); font-size: 22px; margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important;">made by the other imperfect bird. </p><p style="margin-block: 1.5rem 0px; max-width: var(--wp--style--global--content-size); font-size: 22px; margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important;"><br></p><p style="margin-block: 1.5rem 0px; max-width: var(--wp--style--global--content-size); font-size: 22px; margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Robert Bly</p><div id="jp-post-flair" class="sharedaddy sd-like-enabled" style="margin-block: 1.5rem 0px; max-width: var(--wp--style--global--content-size); clear: both; padding-top: 0.5em; margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></div></body></html>