CALL DOWN THE MOON: Poems of Music

A collection of poems from Livingston (If You Ever Meet a Whale, 1992, etc.) with a focus on music in all its variety, loosely organized into 12 sections, with titles such as ""Fiddles and Cellos"" and ""Brass and Percussion"" (featuring poems about instruments), ""Time to Practice,"" ""Other Musicians"" (the music of nature), and ""All of Me Sings."" From William Shakespeare and William Blake to Langston Hughes and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the offerings run the gamut, with room for the melancholy of Paul Verlain's ""Autumn Song"" (""Autumn's long sobbing/Violin throbbing/A tuneless strain"") as well as the bolder, brassier joys of John Ciardi and Valerie Worth. A lyrical, boisterous, humorous, and tender celebration of music.