Unlike poetry, where the title is part of the art,

classical music is often known by number:

Beethoven or Shostakovich’s 5th ,

Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 or 4,

with no explanatory title, no helpful epigraph,

no hint at historical origin or setting.

A purity in that. The composer trusting you

to divine emotion from the humble offering,

to assemble thematic architecture, to find home

without a compass rose, allow sounds to trip

across the strings of your brain,

plucking, wrenching, lighting colors,

pumicing, peeling layers,

sketching scenes, filling spaces

with impassioned structure until,

absent language, you are

altered at the numbered altar.

Katherine Edgren has two books of poetry: Keeping Out the Noise, by Kelsay Books and The Grain Beneath the Gloss, by Finishing Line Press, plus two chapbooks: Long Division and Transports. Her work has appeared in journals including: Coe Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, Light, Hanging Loose Press, Orchards Poetry Journal, and Third Wednesday, among others.