Best Arpeggios Poems
Now yellowed with age
a lonely music book,
hidden in every page
old musician dreams
of endless nights passed
struggling with melodies,
lovely trills and arpeggios,
etudes and symphonies;
a sentry keeping watch
over dirtied ivory keys
played and loved once
by souls of olden days;
labors of faceless men
held close to its breast,
strains still remembered
kept deep in the chest;
an old piano book stands
now sullied by the years,
within its torn pages live
dead musician tears.
Categories:
arpeggios, introspection, life, music, nostalgia
Form:
Free verse
There are so many things I am mad about.
Take sunrise with red clouds and soft rays
Penetrating through the water-laden clouds.
Rain is imminent, thunder threatening afar.
It matters not, for I love to stay cosy indoors.
Soon, it will rain, and with impulsive haste, I’ll
Sit at my beloved baby grand and play
A few tentative light-hearted arpeggios
Followed by a mesmerising, uplifting allegro
But never finish with some sad dirge.
By noon, the weather clears into a soft breeze
And I proceed to have a meal made up
Of my favourite shellfish and rigatoni
With shredded truffles and a glass of chilled Chablis.
From that terrace, I could see the turbulent sea,
Its waves roll nonchalantly towards the shore,
Rising and falling, always transient
And showering us with a froth of salty spray,
A sweet caress that tastes so pleasant on my lips.
There are so many things that give me pleasure and satisfaction.
And you, Madam? I still remember your sensitivity.
Your glossy lips met mine: It was the best thing I loved.
Categories:
arpeggios, love,
Form:
Free verse
You manage to sneak
your way into every line of every song,
every rise and fall of the volume,
every repetition of a phrase,
and once you’re there, I play your face
along with the arpeggios.
Your smile becomes a musical phrase,
your laugh becomes a giggle of drums,
your scent the smooth, seamless transition
between tracks. And when the album ends,
leaving me in silence, in lonely darkness,
I feel you in the bed next to me,
whispering my name.
Categories:
arpeggios, love, music, giggle,
Form:
Free verse
Massaging the strings as droplets alight
Dewy nectar of the rainbow's sunlight
Angels' songs take wing -- faithfully
On earth mortals dance - in harmony
Harp notes tremble in graceful time
Arpeggios crescendo to nature's rhyme
Whilst the tempest gathers force high above
Toward its climax ~ a downpour of love
Categories:
arpeggios, angel, love, music, rain,
Form:
Quatrain
Autumn 10-2-23
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Autumn Pathetique
God winks with fall in blessedness
A pathetique from a soft breeze,
Silk sonatas, scarlet tresses,
Abundant blessings and jubilees.
Veiled in gold, summer’s parting kiss,
God winks with fall in blessedness,
As amber shadows reminisce
Songs of geese with tender finesse.
Rust tremolos of grace confess
Thankfulness in coral colognes
God winks with fall in blessedness,
Arpeggios in jewel tones.
Autumn’s grace notes in golden fields
Begs hearts to see sacred largess,
Anointed days of hallowed yields -
God winks with fall in blessedness.
Categories:
arpeggios, autumn, blessing, song,
Form:
Quatern
She’s rolled up with patience
dedication and faith in the Lord;
her strictness punctuated a shared vision
that focused on learning acquisition.
Her punctuality, precision, and determination
to teach her pupils with discipline and right focusing;
as a rule of thumb she always obeyed
made the essence of what music means to all.
Rain or shine she’s there in her cubicle
waiting for her pupils scheduled to take their lessons;
those Hanon exercises, arpeggios, and other finger articulations
would lead off in concentration or warm-up in every lesson.
Perhaps she’s a scarecrow to some who hadn’t known her;
but she’d a listening heart described as a story line;
with depth and assurance that no one is denied,
along with other slow learners who coped with perseverance.
Truly, her endless word to slow down in every measure,
her technique that entailed so much discipline and correction
through memory lane I still remember a constant repetition;
her affinity for perfection that requires discipline and proportion.
She’s a teacher keenly aware of her pupils’ emotions,
her generosity explained either in time or learning a score;
as a sign and meaning to pedagogical association
with thriving efforts to play the music with technique and precision.
She’s held in the affectionate memory of her pupils,
their collective thoughts about her fittingly honored her
a woman like her with a horizon of meaning to everyone
a true Filipino educator with a glowing torch in her soul
and her music sustained my vocation to go on.
Its magical link to depth and soul of human expression,
its beauty and inspiration that kept me to deepen my own calling;
to make piano sing in the balance of emotion, technique and celebration
a way to experience Him with wonders and beauty – limitless world.
Maraming salamat , Maestra Marina M Diokno!
I really missed you; I really treasured whatever you taught me;
your strong affinity for virtuousity, allegato and sostenuto,
indeed, a memory lane suffused with gratitude and threads of appreciation.
Categories:
arpeggios, loss, music, beauty, memory,
Form:
Elegy
Hours after hours of practice
Making sounds that are polished pearls
Connected by a thin string made up of
Accelerando, arpeggios, and articulation
O, what wonderful colours you have!
Measures after measures of music
Playing with deep emotions that flow
Sometimes, the stream in the green meadow on a sunny day
Other time, the ruthless ocean during a thunderstorm
O, what diverse sentiments you convey!
Days after days as time passes
Never failing to sooth the heart and the soul
Inspiring in a way that builds and constructs
Confidence, courage, pride, and esteem
O, what comfort you provide!
Rehearsals after rehearsals with the full orchestra
Stepping onto the stage of the world famous Carnegie Hall
Performing in front of a full house audience, the cadenza
In Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underwood Overture
O, what memorable experiences you bring!
Categories:
arpeggios, appreciation, music,
Form:
Ode
It was just another ordinary day
Scattered notes are all over the place
Drums trying to maintain a certain beat
Guitars either strumming or singing
Violins studying their scales and arpeggios
The piano pouring out its player’s soul
Clarinets and flutes blowing out harmonies
A mesmerizing vocal cuts through
A white butterfly flutters freely
Basking in the building’s flowing melodies
Students rushing in and out of the cafeteria
Sheet music in their hands while eating
Leaves of variant colors fall from the trees
The wind blows in one direction
Compensating for the scorching hot sun
Taking turns as nature takes its usual course
Old friends reconcile and greet each other
Re-living past memories and narrating the present
Speaking of profound concepts within their discourse
Anyone overhearing may be left confused
It was just another ordinary day
Scattered notes are all over the place
Many things happening all at once
Yet the resonant music remained unnerved
Categories:
arpeggios, imagery, imagination, music, onomatopoeia,
Form:
Free verse
Both hands simultaneously
Depressing white key and black key
Fingertips
Arpeggios plucked string by string
Or six strings together strumming
Fingernails
"Pulling-off" or "hammering-on"
Up the neck for chord inversions
Fingerboards
Categories:
arpeggios, music, repetition,
Form:
Rhyme
Musicianship
(3 May 2014; For my son Steven, an ACCOMPLISHED guitarist)
Real musicianship can truly drive you nuts—
There really are no “ifs”, “ands”, or “buts”.
Practice, study, memorize, then more practice--
Is this just an obsession or complete madness?
Learning chord inversions, arpeggios, and scales
Is like reaching Heaven by crossing through seven Hells.
It wouldn’t be bad if there were only a dozen majors,
But there’s also those other dozen minors.
What’s worse, it seems we’re never finished
Because there’s also augmented and diminished,
The major/minor/augmented/dominant sevenths.
And symmetrical double-flatted diminished sevenths,
And if this harmonic mess is not enough,
All those dissonant Jazz chords get really tough…
Such as the sustained seconds and fourths,
The sevenths add nines, sixths, blah-blah-blah, elevenths.
And if learning all this isn’t already extraordinary,
There’s music theory and music vocabulary.
Instead of just saying “get louder”, you have to “crescendo”,
Or for “fast” or “slow” you say “allegro” or “lento”.
Then there are names like Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian,
Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian.
(All being modes derived from scale C-major,
Plus each major scale also has a relative minor)
Multiple pattern exercises on guitar fretboards
Are even worse than finger drills on piano keyboards.
Worse, the string tuning on a six-string acoustic guitar
Is not quite the same as on a 4/5/6/7-string bass guitar.
It’s hard to get up on stage and routinely play
That same song, for the umpteenth time, in an inspiring way.
No wonder musicians seem to all suffer manic-depression,
From trying to play a full sets with unique expression.
All the advances in music equipment and technology
Bless and curse musicians like two-edged swords, you see,
Because all this work they do to sound like a maestro or genius
Can be counterfeited on a computer by a musical ignoramus.
But computer geeks won’t ever find that special place,
That fugue-like subtle sacred state of grace,
Which for brief moments is like deep meditation.
No, that’s the forbidden domain of the real musician.
To suggest that musicians all are just “gifted” naturally,
Is the absolute superlative worst insulting irony.
Truly, real musicianship can drive you nuts—
No, there really are no “ifs”, “ands”, or “buts”.
Categories:
arpeggios, education, humor, inspiration, music,
Form:
Quatrain
I hear the music calling me
From the smooth and shiny rows of keys
The ebony and ivory
And all the melodies between
‘Come!’ it says, ‘And play a song
Upon your fingertips I’ll canter along.
Befriend the scales—arpeggios
Follow the tune wherever it goes
Let your heart become the notes
Let your soul become the pitch
Let your life become the piece
Together we shall play.’
I hear the music calling me
From brazen gold and silver strings
Between burnished frets I have seen
The beginnings of a reverie
‘Come!’ it says ‘And pick a poesy,
Fast and furious, young and rosy.
Strum my chords, tickled with rhythm
Call and coax the magic within them
Let your mind roam free and far
Let your voice capture the stars
Let your soul be one with mine
Together we shall play.’
I hear the music calling me
From silver, circular woodwind keys
The trilled and tranquil fairy fifes
Will slice the silence like a knife
‘Come!’ it says, ‘And toot a tune
And learn the lore of lustrous flutes.
Dance upon the bars and staffs
Our mystery within your grasp
Know the sharps, the flats, crescendos
Staccatos and diminuendos
Since your birth you’ve known it’s so
This is knowledge you should know
Lay your life upon these keys
Tune your heart to match my beat
Sing and dance your destiny
Together we shall play.’
Categories:
arpeggios, music, heart, music, heart,
Form:
Personification
Tiny marimba pinwheels rotate,
Under flippant bass.
A poodle barks...
A barrage of dissonant sounds,
Melodies played backwards...
Then the music stops.
A ambivalent sneer,
As sounds rush around
Taking cover from
a blitzkreig of odd meters...
A mournful solo
filled with arabesques..
a sonic fart.
Demented cartoon music
turns into
atonal distance
turns into
rock star psuedo-blues
turns into
elegant, triumphant arpeggios.
Good night , Frank
Wherever you are.
Categories:
arpeggios, music, music, music,
Form:
Free verse
Soundscape Strata
Did Bach know to what end
his harvest of melodies-in-parallel would become?
Scholars agonize
Was creation of counterpoint
musical destiny
a hybrid fruit of beauty
knowing no boundary
bewildering those of first look
given musical staffs
voicings and manuscripts
always conformed to traditional confinement?
What spurred his palette of sound
to become one with the elusive rainbow
providing independence through marriage of numbers
allowing prolonged courtship
sanctioning destinies to verge
converge
separate
return to coalesce?
And so
From guitar
to clavichord
string quartets
to symphonies
counterpart airs were discovered
became melodious architecture
challenging new musical frontiers
voiding tundra's boundary rules
reducing history's brass survey monuments
to mere reflections of past memory
Popularization of Bach's invention
soared beyond the artistic elite
for in '55 "Picnic" graced movie screens
initiating the unsuspecting
elevating emotion with layered melodies
Moonglow playing under the love theme
Bach's kaleidascope of synchronous colors
reached the century's romantics
keyed into a music major
minored ala Brubeck
scat-a-tized via Ella and Mel
and
made unity of opposites a given
Thus
From Bach's synthesis of two dimensions
musical ironies evolved
influencing writers' language
line upon line
stanza to stanza
chapter to chapter
making magical
the double entendre
metaphor
subtext
contrapuntal imaginings
all translated into
infinite language-in-progress
With applause knowing nowhere to go
except to acknowledge the roots of prodigy
a high five to the man
who pioneered so much of our soundscape
taught us all the numbers of romance
ironically created attraction to opposites
arpeggios with many colors
intimacy amidst chaos
Encore Mr. Bach
Encore
Categories:
arpeggios, music,
Form:
Free verse
Thrill knowledge with the desire to spread
Ideals across heads like grains of sand
Sprinkle little rays of brightness
Into cups full of vanilla ice-cream
If the sun doesn’t sparkle
Then there is no one to blame
But one’s own eyes
Blind to the legacy that showcases it’s prize in the middle of the day
If the moon’s enchanting lullabies don’t soothe the soul
Open up the heart and let winds
Change the currents and ease the turmoil
Tealeaves soak in small kettles over the stove
Passionate inferno and a stream of serenity
Measured into china cups and a sugar lump in each
To put into a smile and a twinkle of the eye
Do the world a favor and breathe between bamboo shoots and bowls of rice
While Time runs his hand over the strings on the guitar
And plays Life a love song
Time is not eternally handsome or young
Life is not always bearing silk and jewels
But the hourglass keeps flowing and love grows despite the looks and pearls
Arpeggios play slowly while dusk draws further away and it’s another day
I could hold your hand and run forever through lanes of cherry blossoms
Racing towards storms of crimson flora that from a hurricane would be shamed
Falling down as I open my heart and let them rest in memoirs
Whispering secrets and thoughts that take a lifetime to say
But a second to realize
Mysteries never really bothered me
If everything was known then why should I blink
To renew tears for sorrow and tears of laughter
I’d love to know most of it but I’ll be fine if I die without knowing it at all
As long as I know how it feels to live then I’ll be fine
Molecular Biology and Genetic evolution and all terms fade
From textbooks and minds
Awakening dreams and aspire to devote themselves to dew drops
Disciples of a flawed world
Defects are perfect to judge the worth
Of perfection
Inside endless worlds there lies just a simple dew drop
Prisms reflect giving ideas of complex
Intricate weavings and deeper then deep thoughts
Everything to you has to be a little more then less
But less is maybe exactly what your looking for
Despite riches and greed infiltrating peace
I have more wealth in a glitter of an star
Then in a stock bond
Laugh it up and respire
To expire and depart this life
With handfuls of luminous memories inside of balloons to help one float up
Into the Sky
Categories:
arpeggios, time, heart, heart, love,
Form:
Free verse
Shrieking and squawking,
following prophets through uncharted waters,
wailing in sustained arpeggios.
He mimics constellations, blazing stars in rich profusion,
pulling passion into focus with a dark yet supple tone.
Religions and mythologies,
screams of souls in harsh enslavement,
sources for his stark doxologies.
Charting new boundaries of rhythm and rhyme,
a new definition his legacy, growing with time.
Categories:
arpeggios, music,
Form:
Verse