Glenn Gould's Chair

Book excerpt: Poetry. Music. In Mandy Kahn's wonderfully inventive and gloriously lyrical second collection, Béla Bartók treks into remote villages to record folk songs on the world's first phonograph, a dying Gustav Mahler is greeted in heaven by Mozart, Igor Stravinsky receives a letter from a music student who wonders what rules are left to break, and Glenn Gould's chair defends its owner against claims of eccentricity. Kahn--who also works as an opera librettist--explores the challenges and exaltations of the creative life in brilliant, accessible poems that explode with curiosity, incisiveness, and awe--and that build into a lush celebration of music and making.