Piano
Ivory and ebony, laid out in sequence,
Await a minstrel's ideation.
Harboring a secret hidden within its core,
Hammers and strings resonate in harmony.
With each note, from pianissimo to fortissimo,
A range of emotions is invoked.
No more than a bagatelle, no less than a symphony,
Feelings are explored and stories are told.
Sadness and joy,
Fear and hope,
Longing and comfort,
A march, a hymn, a waltz,
Love... Love.
When each key is struck,
When each chord is played,
When every tone is heard,
Where are you? When are you? Who are you?
Nothing quite compares to its sound.
No time or rhyme, no reason or season,
No boundaries are founded, its reach is endless,
But, one thing is certain...
Creation, imagination, inspiration;
These are its manifestations.
Transcending all genres, it is music,
And its greatest gift to us all is poetry.
About this poem
I was inspired to write this poem after hearing one of my cats walking across the keys of our family piano. He leapt onto the bass keys from a rolltop desk nearby. It was startling at first; the sudden low thunderous tones of several bass keys being struck at once, but he proceeded up the scales. He paused around Middle C, sat, pressing half a dozen keys in the process all at once, licked his paw, then raised and continued on until he had reached the higher notes. He then turned and jumped off. His brief debut was atonal at best, but strangely familiar and pleasant, despite the initial plop on the lower keys. It reminded me that such an instrument has been used for so long to tell so many stories. Such a universal musical instrument, a piano, and yet still so mysterious. more »
Written on September 14, 2023
Submitted by karyn.gardner1985 on September 14, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 40 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXB XXBX XXXXX XXXX XAXA AXXB |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 844 |
Words | 173 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 5, 4, 4, 4 |
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Citation
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"Piano" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Sep. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/170750/piano>.
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