“Music” by Anne Porter

This morning, Garrison Keillor read read a poem by Anne Porter called “Music”. (Not Katherine Anne Porter. Go here for a bio.) It is the most beautiful description of music and its place in humanity I’ve ever heard. Music is a gift that reminds us of our homeland and spot in eternity.

…

And when music comes to us
With its heavenly beauty
It brings us desolation
For when we hear it
We half remember
That lost native country

…

And shining at the heart of it
Is the longed-for beauty
Of the One who waits for us
Who will always wait for us
In those radiant meadows

Yet also came to live with us
And wanders where we wander.

I ordered the book the poem is published in, Living Things: Collected Poems, which also has a forward by David Shapiro. I’m excited to read more Porter!