1.
My teacher lies on the floor with a bad back
off to the side of the piano.
I sit up straight on the stool.
He begins by telling me that every key
is like a different room
and I am a blind man who must learn
to walk through all twelve of them
without hitting the furniture.
I feel myself reach for the first doorknob.
2.
He tells me that every scale has a shape
and I have to learn how to hold
each one in my hands.
At home I practice with my eyes closed.
C is an open book.
D is a vase with two handles.
G flat is a black boot.
E has the legs of a bird.
3.
He says the scale is the mother of the chords.
I can see her pacing the bedroom floor
waiting for her children to come home.
They are out at nightclubs shading and lighting
all the songs while couples dance slowly
or stare at one another across tables.
This is the way it must be. After all,
just the right chord can bring you to tears
but no one listens to the scales,
no one listens to their mother.
4.
I am doing scales,
the familiar anthems of childhood.
My fingers climb the ladder of notes
and come back down without turning around.
Anyone walking under this open window
would picture a girl of about ten
sitting at the keyboard with perfect posture,
not me slumped over in my bathrobe, disheveled,
like a white Horace Silver.
5
I am learning to play
‘It Might As Well Be Spring’
but my left hand would rather be jingling
the change in the darkness of my pocket
or taking a nap on an armrest.
I have to drag him into music
like a difficult and neglected child.
This is the revenge of the one who never gets
to hold the pen or wave good-bye,
and now, who never gets to play the melody.
6.
Even when I am not playing, I think about the piano.
It is the largest, heaviest
and most beautiful object in this house.
I pause in the doorway just to take it all in.
And late at night I picture it downstairs,
this hallucination standing on three legs,
this curious beast with its enormous moonlit smile.
From The Art of Drowning by Billy Collins
This was a genuinely beautiful read, Tim, thanks for sharing it.
you’re welcome!
relatedly two of my new years resolutions were to:
(a) play the piano every day
(b) learn to sight read
wisely I didn’t put a time frame on the sight reading part…
i am learning very, very slowly….
but I’ve been playing this iphone game as practice
http://inotetrainer.blogspot.com/
might also try this one
http://sites.google.com/site/sandalsoftware/sightread
Nice resolutions, I wish you the best in fulfilling them!
Outside of some basic piano lessons, I (sadly) never devoted myself to learning a traditional instrument. I find the mandolin to be really intriguing, though, so maybe that will be my point of entry back into the performance side of music.
Hey man, just commenting to say I thought this was quite beautiful. I’m getting some piano lessons now myself. I played when I was very young, then gave it a way for a while. First for other instruments, then for other instruments. But now i’m kind of back where I started and it’s so good to remember that music and sound was always something that was just so beautiful and worthwhile in and of itself for me.
Also, enjoying the new (ish? Shamefully, I haven’t been visiting here for a while) design. Lovely, clean and light.
http://www.sightreadingpractice.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?sight&layout=full&id=7747896297&dpt=s&split=2
ive been using this for sight reading practice…good luck with your goals! they are mine too!
Very very nice.
These are really lovely, Tim. I’ll share them with some of my older students and with poetry-loving friends.
Will also check out the iNote Trainer linked above. Seems like a good tool to beguile my friends into learning!
Brilliant. Seriously, Tim. Thanks!