Dancing with Bach

by George V. Van Deventer

                                            I pray daily
For the language of Johann Sebastian Bach,
His plaza of exclamatory, uninhibited,
Contemplative voices — children
Racing, sulking, touching
Each other at the plaza fountain —
Wet — their voices splash
In the baptism of play.

                                            I pray
Time deep within ourselves —
History braided in ancestral colors —

          Kyrie Eleison

That I might speak with the Navajo,
Banter in the streets with Bach —
Speak with the child
Stammering within me.