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     Music Appreciation

Posted: Mon May 06, 2019 1:05 pm
by Tracy Mitchell
~

       Music Appreciation    

My head melted to a cafeteria table top    
with the rest of my second grade class.
A few sneaking peeks and giggles.

A roving teacher to keep us quiet, in rows, 
repeated the direction -– 
close your eyes and imagine what you hear
–  imagine what you will! – 


she played scratched vinyl Rachmaninov,  
Rimsky-Korsokov . . .  Chopin
.

Antsy, sweating, trapped.
I imagined with all my might the immovable hands
on the large black wall clock 
thaw, move,
crawl toward my burst down the hall, 
to explode out green, plate-windowed double doors
into real air, and it didn’t matter
whether it was dark and blustery or sticky hot and still.

Even today when I hear
the dancing strings of Scheherazade
I imagine my forehead down on a table
in a yellow painted room 
filled with expectancy
in a basement of stale air.


~
 

Re:      Music Appreciation

Posted: Tue May 07, 2019 3:14 pm
by indar
I wonder where you can get some anti-aversion treatment--no one should have to experience such associations with Scheherazade. Its all about the ship crashing on the rocks and sinking. Not certain if that's the actual program but it was my father's explanation. I wrote about his connection to that particular piece of music in one of my poems about his WW2 experience. 
I love your poem, such a nice piece of reality that illustrates how seemingly small events shape reactions that can last a lifetime. Listen to the following and think of the sea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu0ZJstisDE

 

Re:      Music Appreciation

Posted: Wed May 08, 2019 7:22 am
by Dave
Great piece. Albeit traumatic
Dave