Freude: On Hearing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony after a Two-Year Pandemic Delay

The master couldn’t hear his work,
but here we are listening together—
where the flowing waters meet—
to Beethoven’s final symphony.
The contrasts and crescendos at times too much:
a smile releases the mind’s discomfiture.
The trumpet player drinks some water,
waiting for his chance, the ringing choir
is a morose tribunal peering down
on the merrymakers, their glee-woods.
The stilted clap at movement’s end
persists, and no one seems to mind.
We’ve all waited years for this scherzo—
let them have their gratuitous applause!
Whatever abyss will welcome us,
we have this joy together now.