A dozen musical passages from Sonnets with Two Torches and One Cliff:

“You’re the one in a flared red dress, crawling / up Patti Smith’s stairs.”
— from “Sonnet with Two Maggies and a Riverboat”

“You’re the Mustang Sally who’d ride / with Buddy Guy, and you’re Suzanne in rags.”
— from “Sonnet with Two Maggies and a Riverboat”

“The hide / of a noble horse becomes glue that holds / the ribs
of Itzhak Perlman’s violin / as it sings Mozart and Rachmaninoff.”
— from “Sonnet with Abalone and Glue”

“Even / the spherical chords of Thelonious / Sphere Monk—even they are,
finally, born / of human hands that caress inhuman / instruments.”
— from “Sonnet with Blue Sphere and Ruby, My Dear”

“What if creatures in other galaxies / have a vague sense that something is missing, /
but don’t know it’s Little Richard, Shakespeare, / and cornbread with plum jam?”
— from “Sonnet with Swan and Long Tall Sally”

“Seven / seconds in Coltrane’s Love that justify / the ways of love to man.”
— from “Sonnet with Schlock and Yonder”

“While I was listening to Steely Dan, / she listened to Sun Ra.”
— from “Sonnet with Pizza and Revelation”

“Echoes / whose feedback warps a croon into a screech.”
— from “Sonnet with Aurora and Aurelia”

“Henry VIII composed Greensleeves, they say, /
for Anne Boleyn. Nothing but a rumor.”
— from “Sonnet with Sword and Petticoat”

“Did you think I wouldn’t understand why / you’d have to choose
the one who was alpha / and omega? Zydeco and acid / rock,
ascot and zoot suit, Zen and Amish, / apparition and zombie.”
— from “Sonnet with Zombie and Zoot Suit”

“What if by definition your soulmate, / who keeps you up till sunrise talking songs /
(Which is better: Hard Rain or Idiot Wind?), / is impossible to love ….”
— from “Sonnet with Hard Rain and Spreadsheet”

‘O whaten a mountain is yon,’ she said, / ‘All so dreary wi frost and snow?’ /
‘O yon is the mountain of hell,’ he cried, / ‘Where you and I will go.’
— from “The Daemon Lover,” or, “The House Carpenter” (epigraph)