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All Together Now
Charles Finn

Leave the darkness to the crickets
They know what they’re doing
Sawing away on bended knee
Carpenters of the night.

They build their songs
Little ditties of holy
Out of thin air, some cartilage
And the truth.

See how the evening gown of heaven
Sequined with stars waltzes itself
Across the ballroom of sky, how the moon
Cups its ear, rises to hear them.

The whole meadow turns out
Fireflies winking like lighters
Coyotes practicing their scales
An acapella of frogs joining in.

And so the question becomes
At what point do you not stand up
And applaud? At what point
Do you not fall to your knees

And weep? Saying thank you, thank you
To that eternally shy, famously invisible
Composer, standing before us all
Waving her silent baton.

—
Charles Finn is the former editor of the literary and fine arts magazine High Desert Journal, author of Wild Delicate Seconds: 29 Wildlife Encounters and, with photographer Barbara Michelman, author of On a Benediction of Wind: Poems and Photographs from the American West, winner of the 2022 Montana Book Award. With Kim Stafford, he is co-editor of the poetry textbook The Art of Revising Poetry: 21 U.S. Poets on their Drafts, Craft, and Process. A self-taught woodworker and wood artist, he is the owner of A Room of One’s Own as well as FINNFURNITURE & ART, where he builds micro-cabins, furniture, and wood sculptures using reclaimed lumber and materials. He lives in Havre, MT, with his wife Joyce Mphande-Finn and their two cats Tija and Rilke.

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