A single string stirring neutron dance

I have always liked that phrase from Michael Shorb's poem "Geese."  I often reflect on it when observing flocks of birds soaring as one during migrations. There is a rhythm and harmony to this "dance" that is musical.  In hindsight, I think this must have been part of the inspiration for my piano composition "Stirrings."

GEESE by Michael Shorb

Just north of Valley Falls
rust mustard hue of
fading autumn
     chills the marsh
last storm of
Canadian geese
stuns the flyway
imprinted engines of feathers and cries.

I wonder how they'll
thread their way
how instincts born of spanning
northern frosts and raw
walnut air
navigate interstate
haze to pinpoints in
South American distance
zeroing back with
each unerring swoop
to splashdown
   on a mountain lake
where reeds bend
mirrored in watery
reflections
of their own swaying

they and the vanishing geese
a single string
stirring
neutron dance
shifting
branches of the actual
surrounding me like
breath returning
when everything else
       is gone.

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