Staccato and tart,
blueberries on the Steinway;
Juice inflames the keys.
the dining hall is half empty
because it is friday - shabbat
and good jews light candles at home
not such a good jew i am out
with my female friend both of us
dressed for the late winter evening
conversation is light, muted
mostly about the eggplant dish
i'm having or calimari
my elegant friend is having
while the wizened broad in the back
plays dulcet tones on the steinway
my mind drifts from the idle talk
as i think how at such a place
with the white tablecloths
quiet music and low lighting
they shot dead rosie rosenthal
when he stepped outside for a smoke
i half expect to get shot too
when at length the dinner concludes
and we rejoin the chilly night
with near regret i note i'm not
for they'd recall me like rosie
and i'd not wake up still alone
Bechstein, Blüthner, Steinway or Fazioli,
even an archaic Pianoforti,
long had he craved to play them all.
He was in love with their shape and sheen,
their sweeping contours, their circuit bodies.
He loves the sensuality of maple and spruce,
those handcrafted mahogany torsos,
the sprung brass of muted pedals,
deep resonations
within a grand iron skeleton
a tri-legged, beast of beauty,
built to create the most delicate of nocturns,
or a thumping Hungarian Rhapsody.
He would run his fingers,
over their curvaceous sable forms
allow fingertips to caress un-played keys,
the almost erotic white and black harmony
beneath a chaste lid.
He imagines playing
for a lady in crinoline perhaps,
and he the intense composer
of unspoken desires.
Sad to say,
his clumsy laptop fingers,
clattered upon that keyboard,
his coda forever silent.
Rearranging discordant thoughts
memories fall in place
Like keys upon a Steinway
awaiting my embrace
Sharp notes lead, the flats behind
as I replay the past
Chords when struck connecting all
—in harmonies recast
(Dreamsleep: June, 2023)
Lotsir B. Redlion and Vevor Gould's
Pultez Vittez Vaulter manager.
Was interviewed by " One Hot Number"
Kazu Steinway.
They used the Peavey Soundstage
With an audience. During the
Interview, the masked Lorsir
Said so ment, cantar! Targus,
Targus! And everyone laughed,
So the interview frowned not
Knowing the joke.
Then off airmen Bushier said
The bacon in the jam better be
Turkey cause it looked raw
To him!
Lotsir B. Redlion and Vevor Gould's
Pultez Vittez Vaulter manager.
Was interviewed by " One Hot Number"
Kazu Steinway.
They used the Peavey Soundstage
With an audience. During the
Interview, the masked Lorsir
Said so ment, cantar! Targus,
Targus! And everyone laughed,
So the interview frowned not
Knowing the joke.
Then off airmen Bushier said
The bacon in the jam better be
Turkey cause it looked raw
To him!
Lotsir B. Redlion and Vevor Gould's
Pultez Vittez Vaulter manager.
Was interviewed by " One Hot Number"
Kazu Steinway.
They used the Peavey Soundstage
With an audience. During the
Interview, the masked Lorsir
Said so ment, cantar! Targus,
Targus! And everyone laughed,
So the interview frowned not
Knowing the joke.
Then off airmen Bushier said
The bacon in the jam better be
Turkey cause it looked raw
To him!
Lotsir B. Redlion and Vevor Gould's
Pultez Vittez Vaulter manager.
Was interviewed by " One Hot Number"
Kazu Steinway.
They used the Peavey Soundstage
With an audience. During the
Interview, the masked Lorsir
Said so ment, cantar! Targus,
Targus! And everyone laughed,
So the interview frowned not
Knowing the joke.
Then off airmen Bushier said
The bacon in the jam better be
Turkey cause it looked raw
To him!
Lotsir B. Redlion and Vevor Gould's
Pultez Vittez Vaulter manager.
Was interviewed by " One Hot Number"
Kazu Steinway.
They used the Peavey Soundstage
With an audience. During the
Interview, the masked Lorsir
Said so ment, cantar! Targus,
Targus! And everyone laughed,
So the interview frowned not
Knowing the joke.
Then off airmen Bushier said
The bacon in the jam better be
Turkey cause it looked raw
To him!
She has a PhD in Physics
works as a surgeon on the side
Four kids to date with one in the oven
across a Steinway, her swift fingers glide
But older sis calls her a ‘know-nothing’
‘cos the PhD thinks ‘all lives matter’
Ere she responds, younger sis pauses a minute
then smiles ~ ‘Perhaps me, you flatter’
gw rhyme June 21, 2022
I am attracted by
Virtuous notes
A capable sound
From a Steinway & Sons grand piano
A mighty orchestra
Unknown melodies
A child prodigy at the keyboard
A Gift of Peace
The hammer that strikes golden strings
Of a grand piano.
Bravo. Hurrah.
A Laurel, a performance hardly heard
Attentive spectators rejoice
The vaults of the concert hall
Reflect corpulent sounds
Gershwin’s Allegro or Lento
'Scherzo Con Brio' without hardship
The child pianist
That angels also listen
Of a talent that inebriates like wine
And the key to a distant remembrance
It is now a choral
Then a horn sound
Of at an Imperial Andante
Then the violins all around
Fiery Rondo. Dreamy adages.
Arpeggio and a madrigal
Finally, the Grand Finale
Without hesitation
steinway seeks tuner
harmonize black and white keys
no loose strings attached
bechstein craves soft touch
align timeless surrender
blind echoes restored
11th May 2020
Contest: Flow With The Colum Lune
Sponsor: Nette Onclaus
Visual: 1
Mother bartered me to an Englishman.
His tribe made televisions.
In those days
televisions were wooden vehicles
crafted out of electric fans
and the spare parts of flying saucers.
Later he became an overseer
of sparky factory hands.
Once while waiting outside for his shift to end,
I jumped from the cross-strut
of a tall billboard. When he found me,
my leg was broken.
'Look what your son has done now'!
"Superman made me do it."
My exiled Irish mother shrugged.
She had entirely forgotten herself
since her surrender.
I liked the Hospital;
African nurses coddled me with plump pink palms.
It was there that I first learned to play a sick piano;
ears pressed into drumming wood
while the blind piano tuner
(a wandering Jew), tapped its hollow bones.
For days I kept
an infirm Steinway under my pillow -
dreamed of fret-sawing crotchets and quavers.
When I returned home mother had found a priest,
and again her native religion began to spook her,
though she still spoke to me in a language
only Superman could hear.
My late father
played gorgeous music
on his Steinway
Debussy, Ravel, Beethoven
along with his own compositions
He set eight of my poems to music
I sang while he played
Every Hanukkah he would play "Rock of Ages"
on the keyboard
The piano is silent now
His students preserve his legacy
with their compositions
Music - like poetry
can melt the heart
I sit here on an autumn day
Remembering my father
People leave this mortal coil
That is our fate!
But some leave behind great poetry and
music in their wake
Seems like they are almost immortal!
The piano is silent now
But I am still here
and hopefully inscribed
in the book of life for a good year
My father being gone for a number of years
he left his mark on future generations
by giving them the gift of music
And he left 4 new individuals in his wake
I am one
I was a fairly good son
The piano is silent now
But memory persists
And one can take joy in that!
Touch the woman's heart,
it's virtuoso performance.
Woman is violin Stradivarius,
Steinway & Sons piano,
sweet flute,,,
To play well,
must be skilled,
careful,
affectionate
and offer a lot of love ...! ...
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