Elevator Music By Henry Taylor

A tune with no more substance than the air, performed on underwater instruments,
is preper to this short lift from the earth.
It hovers as we draw into ourselves,
and turns our reverent eyes toward the light.
That count us to our varous destinies.
We're all in this together. The songs says,
and later we'll descend. The melody
is like a name we don't recall just now
that still keeps on insisting it's there.


Henry Taylor is Professor of Literature and Co-Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at American University in Washington, DC. He was the winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. He is the author of five volumes of poetry.