If Bach had been a beekeeper

he would have heard

all those notes

suspended above one another

in the air of his ear

as the differentiated swarm returning

to the exact hive

and place in the hive,

topping up the cells

with the honey of C major,

food for the listening generations,

key to their comfort

and solace of their distress

as they return and return

to those counterpointed levels

of hovering wings where

movement is dance

and the air itself

a scented garden

—Charles Tomlinson