A GIFT

For a long time now I have not been able to listen
to Dinu Lipatti’s slender, ascetic fingertips
pressing ever to gently firm on the piano keys

In his last recorded transcription of Bach’s Cantata "
Jesus bleibet meine Freude" given to me
by George Oppen the year he died..

It is too sad to hear
that severe, geometrically measured stroll of the soul
healthily light-stepping into heaven,

and has become sadder with each loved one’s death:
the slow, spare, stately pace wrenching the heart
with its grateful ascendancy over grief,

and staring as if straight into the face of God
either everywhere or nowhere, leaving us
nothing to say, nothing to hear as luminous

and meltingly tender as the air
fills with silence, and the heart with loss.

-Jack Marshall

Berklee’s poetry Walk was laid in October 2003 along Edison Street between Shattuck and Milvia Streets. The route includes 128 metal plates with excerpts from songs, each of which is related in one way or another to the city of Berkeley.

The current sign features a poem written by the American poet Jack Marshall (1936), Marshall has lived in California since the early 2000s

George Oppen, mentioned in the song, appears on a nearby plate Click for sign's details