New Season

by Wendy Cope

No coats today. Buds bulge on chestnut trees,

and on the doorstep of a big, old house

a young man stands and plays his flute.

I watch the silver notes fly up

and circle in blue sky above the traffic,

travelling where they will.

And suddenly this paving stone

midway between my front door and the bus stop

is a starting point.

From here I can go anywhere I choose.

From Serious Concerns, London: Faber and Faber, 1992, page 83. This poem also starts and finishes my “Silver Notes” poetry sequence commissioned for the Olympic Sculpture Park by the Seattle Art Museum in August of 2010.