CHAPTER 8: FAINT MUSIC
Having journeyed through grief and loss, Peter discovers affirming grace in a Robert Hass poem.
HOVER TO MAGNIFY
“Faint Music” by Robert Hass
Peter Bruun
2021, 15”x22”, watercolor, gouache & ink on paper
A bald eagle speck appears at the horizon. Today, I bring along Robert Hass: the poem, Faint Music.
“Maybe you need to write a poem about grace.”
Daughter dead, marriage over, family scattered … grace is what I long for.
“I had the idea that the world’s so full of pain
it must sometimes make a kind of singing.”
Reading these lines, I realize I am part of that chorus: in singing our pain, we find acceptance, and release.
I copy his feathery words in russet ink. From them, hope rises in yellow diaphanous lines.
I hear the faint music; I find grace.