Fade Away Poem by gershon hepner

Put the instrument on pause,
fade away with no repeat
before death comes, the final cause
of retirement. We cheat
ourselves if we believe there will
be encores. The Messiah Haendel
once wrote about will not fulfill
the hope for one from Alfred Brendel.

Alfred Brendel, pianist and poet, retired last night in Vienna. Dennis Bartel, reporting this on KUSC this morning, stated that he ended his recital with two encores, but did not know what they were.

12/19/08