S.KRAUSE

Beethoven

You make me believe
By moonlight driven gondolas
Through murky dense canals
In songs without words.

Eldritch touches comfort
Like amber passion leaves floating
Down the forest stone fountain
That all will be well.

Soothing breaths promise
Despite barren fate
That fertile pathos
Bears heroic souls starward.

I make believe your almond eyes
Cascade chords of tender truth.

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Notes: ``I am under your spell,'' a song from the `musical' episode of ``Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (fall, 2001), jumpstarted this poem. Originally ``You make me believe''---or a variation of that phrase---began each stanza. I returned to the poem a day later, discarded most of the text, and produced the final version; nearly each phrase was inspired by pieces of classical music. Mendelssohn wrote ``Songs without Words'', one of which is titled ``On a Gondola.'' Beethoven wrote the ``Moonlight'' and ``Pathetiqué'' sonatas, and symphonies dealing with ``the heroic'' and ``fate.''