A Poem by William Bronk

Beethoven: The Late Sonatas

You have to understand it isn't what
he says but what was being said to him.
He even hardly had to write it down.
He listened in his deafness. In ours, we hear
him listening. We overhear.
The purpose for the pianist playing now
is how to let us think he isn't playing,
to just be quiet and listen along with us.

- from Living Instead, North Point Press, 1991.