20 points
how does the symbolic description of music affect the poem's meaning?

it suggests that the speaker does not literally hear the music, but only imagines it.

it shows that the sky, music, and human beings are basically one and the same.

it expresses the speaker's discovery of joy in what he had thought was a dismal universe.

it implies that the saxophone player is an angelic being sent to heal the speaker's spirit.

man it was a dead-air day—

the soundproof sky pressing its gray padding onto my head

the bare silver trees were flutes no one’s fingers played

and i remembered it was the shortest day of the year.

i muted my brain through an echoless tunnel—

then the hill crest launched a sky tune

on the ridge a whiskered saxophone man in a cloud-black coat

leaned back

tossed bebop notes, rang the bell of his gold horn—

they swirled kicked curled poured

like steam breaking free

like time looping loops—

i rose spinning among them

shedding pink blue orange gold

sparks like a roman candle

and sound-painted all the land

the silver trees tootled counterpoint

the hills streamed chorus after chorus

the old man nodded lipped tongued spit

head rolling

cheeks blowing

waist wrenching

fingers racing

grin cracking the airwaves

i was the tune.