Notes on Barber’s Adagio for Strings

I could be downtown in Caffe Adagio
or on the southside in my apartment,
hear Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings
& be transfixed, rooted to the spot,
unable to move. The music applies bow
to my heartstrings, & I am carried
in the slow climb, the slow build,
the slow movement from melancholy.
Strings transform to slow soar. Moved,
I am lifted & transported finally
from losses & setbacks into wonder
& gratitude at such beauty & transcendence.

~ Andrew Shattuck McBride

On a postcard of the San Juan Islands with Mt. Baker. Mailed to my friend Tallie J.

This is one of my 2013 Postcard Poetry Project poems.