The Symphonies is a collection of 24 poems, created within the conceptual structure of symphonic music. Juxtaposing rhythms, speeds, accelerations, crescendos, tiny gestures, whispered tunes, each symphony has a key that suggests it's aspirations and mood. The Symphonies explores the music that only words can make through the process of our reading. In complex movements of lyrical beauty and quotidian precision, The Symphonies unfurl a music that moves from the ancient to the present moment. Through his seven decades of listening to the poetry alive all around him, and rendering it for us in works of variety and nuance, Kelly has attained a music that plays in tones imbued with life and spirit. Those who still labor under the illusion that poetry is an art form of the young, have the mature works of Robert Kelly to contend with. After dozens of volumes of poetry Kelly continues to find new forms, new arrangements, subjects and concerns to bring to his masterful oevre. "It is a desperate kind of music, writing songs without a tune in my head, trying to let words sing the truth in this anxious time." -Robert Kelly