Pomp, circumstance, and other songs of a lifetime
If you're like me, you've got a big head,
not to mention a funny robe, full of music--
poems and melodies, the tunes
we move to, shower and shave by,
study, write to. Not just the incidental,
but the momentous music keeping time.
Our histories are measures of song,
Listen to your heart: drums of Africa,
sea-spume of blind, far-sighted Homer,
Sappho's honeyed love lyrics. Often,
music speaks for us, one note saying
a thousand words. Like Rodolpho
in Puccini's La Boheme, Sono un poeta.
I am a poet. Che cosa faccio? What
do I do? Scrivo. I write. This ceremony
is loud music--pomp and circumstance
of the life you began freshman year
or that first day of graduate school.
In my head I press Play, and the CD
of Big Days kicks on. I leap and linger
over moments too sweet, nearly, for words.
I'll never escape rhymes from the nursery.
Up above the world so high, like a diamond
in the sky. We knew from the start
our universe was aglow with wonder.
...
You're filled to overflowing with
the notes, the poems we've written
together. You know the score.
Continue to work hard for yourselves,
and one another. Find the ones who need
you to sing to, for them, in the world.
Graduates. this joyful litany, this hymn
our ancestors collaborated on with us,
the calling of your name today is music
to our ears. Sing that name proudly
- David Citino, Ohio State University Poet Laureate
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