Janet Kenny
Beethoven Opus 135 at Breakfast
(Thanks to Richard Wilbur’s “C Minor”)
Beethoven wrote in the manuscript “Muß es sein?” (Must it be?) to which he responds, with the faster main theme of the movement, “Es muß sein!” (It must be!). The whole movement is headed “Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß” (The Difficult Decision)
Beethoven at breakfast. Don’t switch off
the radio. Those strings with early sun
say why my love for you is still enough
and lasts through war and time as this has done.
Four middle-European men retrieve
the voice of an “old child” whose deafness brought
an unimpeded fluency to weave
acceptance, grief and passion into thought.
Here in Australia, after we have played
the international game, this string quartet
still breaks my heart. Our youth is not betrayed.
As long as we have this we don’t forget.
Our difficult decision was no guess.
He asks if it must be and answers, yes.
Janet Kenny has metamorphosed from painter to classical singer to anti-nuclear activist, researcher, writer, illustrator and poet. Started in New Zealand and zigzagged across the globe to finally settle in Australia. She has published fairly widely as a poet. Her website is here.
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