A luthier lifts a glowing plank,
From maple grain with rippled flank;
I hear a truth refined by care:
He coaxes breath from patient wood
And tunes the silence into good
The bow translates a living arc
From ember dusk to whisper dark;
Each note a leaf that will not fall
Suspended by the room’s soft wall
Craft is a prayer made audible air;
Not speed not fame not crowded noise—
But resonance that frees a choice
I hold my burdens to the chin
And draw a line from loss to win;
The maple answers warm and thin:
Begin where listening has been