I prefer to think of you from afar and to hear you
speak in your music and share your feelings through it.
—Nadejda von Meck
That was the best way;
to fortify his art
held by her rouble sway
insistent miles apart
and to forbid his hand,
his lips or ardent gaze
materially form
the passion art conveys;
by this possess such love
that no flesh could disgrace
and unmolested feel
his celibate embrace
after his hands were dust,
by time left unbetrayed,
still to her wasting breast
clasp what he made.
