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:
Written on November 01, 2022
Submitted by tonihildebrand on June 16, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 3 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AABCDEFGHIIIJKILMBNOPQK |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 837 |
Words | 179 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 23 |
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>.
Discuss the poem Piano Playing with the community...
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In