Sunday, February 6, 2011

Dropping Notes

Dropping Notes

Start in the middle, where you sit in the present and
Count.
Look at the breaks ahead, one, two, five,
Good.
Keep going. Keep it up!
Allegro.

Beats, quarter notes, accents, punctuation
Grammar in time, in every breath you release,
Legato.


You’re thinking: mail the car payment, get a mammogram,
Go on a diet.
You seek the place you promised you’d go one day,
Where nothing needs shedding and everything’s in tune
while you sing the old melody and try not to drop any notes.




(C) rosaria
Originally written in 2009.
Revised, 2011























                       

           

7 comments:

  1. You seek the place you promised you’d go one day,
    Where nothing needs shedding and everything’s in tune
    while you sing the old melody and try not to drop any notes.

    I especially like the cadence of these lines.

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  2. Rosaria, you are impressing the ( ) out of me!
    " You seek the place you promised you’d go one day." Oh, herein lies the intrinsic problem. We should live every day as our last, for this moment is everything. But this is what we do, wait, look at two, three seats ahead. (I laugh, it should be notes ahead but I came with preconceived notions. I thought the note passing would be in school, desks in a row.)

    What a wonderful poem!

    xo
    erin

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  3. OK, I just read this aloud to Robert and after I was done he shook his head, yes, and I said, (and pardon my enthusiasm) this is fucking good! i cuss when i mean it!

    xo
    erin

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  4. Erin, how you help me see, even here.

    I hadn't thought of desks in school; but conceivably, desks and a chorus class with musical notes that need to be memorized, all in a school format, all works.

    I was thinking about how whatever we do, no matter how exacting and precise and intense, our preoccupations trump even that intensity. Preoccupations and hidden desires seem to enter our heads and change the chemistry.

    Thank you.

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  5. it gets better as I go along, that's good :)

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