The third poem assignment in my Creative Writing class in college (Spring 1999). This was to be a response to a piece of music or art. I chose to write about Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto, also called the "Emperor." As a pianist, this piece has special meaning for me as the pinnacle of musical achievement. Ideally it should be read aloud; the italics and underlines are meant as inflection guidelines for the reader.

Looking back on it now (2010), I see the seeds of my spiritual path; the co-creation cycle of God and humankind, the sense of gnosis as a state to aspire to, the identification of the self with divinity.

"...And God gave us music that we might pray without words."

--Anonymous

Out of emptiness it begins - a sound so full and alive
I think my heart might break if it ended,
The universe might end if these sounds did not call into being
The threads of joy and wonder and painful ecstasy
Without which all we know would sink into nothingness.

My fingers strain to grasp the music
but my hands are not quite big enough to hold it all
Yet I am not limited, I am set free, of body and society and gravity
And walk for a moment among the stars, knowing
With a certainty strong as diamond that I will accomplish what I desire
If I only will it to be.
And no man may stand in my way.

In the waking world I know the concept of a God is absurd.
But in this dream, more real than real, I believe
That if God does not exist, then he is created by this music
And the man who created it is deified every time it is played.

I salute you, Emperor! You are a monument
To the greatest that man has ever been
And all that he can become.

We are all gods.
We are all immortal.
If man is capable of this beauty and fire
There is nothing we cannot do.
I will play this piece.
I will walk among the stars.
I will live forever.