Piano Playing



Piano Playing
 She's the reason I can never hear a piano playing
 without hearing it as if it was playing in the next room.
Near, near to me, close to my heart.
She's what makes me feel, still,
 a frisson of fear when I smell beer,
her fear of drunkenness as near to me as if it was my own.
Her thoughts tame mine.
I believe people can be too rich and too thin.
I believe the rich are to be despised and envied simultaneously,
 and that to fail your children is to fail utterly.
Songs my mother taught me.
She loved me first and best.
This is the family romance: so they tell us.
Maybe.
Perhaps my mother made love too important,
But how could that be done?
And by whom?
The tinkling notes die away.
The heart and the mind tick over.
The tinkling notes of an old fashioned song
settle on the air.
Fatal, but not serious.

About this poem

This is a childhood memory. My mother had a beautiful voice and she played the piano and sang all through my childhood. I loved listening.

Font size:
Collection  PDF     
 

Written on November 01, 2022

Submitted by tonihildebrand on June 16, 2023

54 sec read
3

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABCDEFGHIIIJKILMBNOPQK
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 837
Words 179
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 23

Antonia Hildebrand

Bio Note Antonia Hildebrand’s first published short story appeared in Downs Images and in ‘Woman's Day' Summer Reading' and she has since been widely published in journals, magazines and anthologies in Australia as well as Britain and the USA and Ireland. She has contributed to ABC Radio National's Bush Telegraph program. Many of her short stories have been broadcast by Radio 91.3FM Yeppoon. She won the USQ Library Poetry Prize (University of Southern Qld Library Poetry Prize in 1998) and the FAW Marjorie Barnard Award in 1999 for a short story, ‘To Breathe’. She is the author of eight books, ranging from biography to autobiography, essays, poetry, short fiction through to novels. Her novel, ‘The Darkened Room’ was published by Ginninderra Press in 2022. more…

All Antonia Hildebrand poems | Antonia Hildebrand Books

1 fan

Discuss the poem Piano Playing with the community...

0 Comments

    Translation

    Find a translation for this poem in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Piano Playing" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/163857/piano-playing>.

    Become a member!

    Join our community of poets and poetry lovers to share your work and offer feedback and encouragement to writers all over the world!

    April 2024

    Poetry Contest

    Join our monthly contest for an opportunity to win cash prizes and attain global acclaim for your talent.
    3
    days
    15
    hours
    30
    minutes

    Special Program

    Earn Rewards!

    Unlock exciting rewards such as a free mug and free contest pass by commenting on fellow members' poems today!

    Browse Poetry.com

    Quiz

    Are you a poetry master?

    »
    "Lady, make a note of this: One of you is lying."
    A Bill Collins
    B Ogden Nash
    C Dorothy Parker
    D May Sarton