Best of The Music Box
Bob and Melinda Armstead
A rerun from over 20 years ago, before we were married. Something to “lift the corners of your mouth”.
Melinda & Bob
Twenty Three Degrees
The features that separate summer from spring,
While subtle indeed in this place,
Proceed from selectively setting the thing
That the earth spins around on in space
At an angle that’s not strictly square with the plane
Of her orbit (elliptically traced
Round the sun once each year) but tilts out of the ring
Just obliquely enough to comply
With our orderly sense of which season comes next.
Take a load off. Here’s mud in your eye.
Robert Armstead
I complimented the author generously on his “poem” and asked him in the most inoffensive spirit of constructive criticism how the last line related to the subject. He was in my opinion disproportionately defensive and said that a line whose meaning was at first glance obscure could well turn out to be the most important attribute of a significant poem, and what led a musician to think she knew anything about literary criticism anyway. This was followed by a candid exchange of views over a broad spectrum of topics, too discursive to report on here.
Melinda Coffey
