Posted in Uncategorized, tagged birthday, cello, death, music, poem, poetry on November 3, 2017| 4 Comments »
with thanks to Kyra
Minor and slow,
the Russian death song
on the cello
fills the room
with loss and beauty,
the two rubbing
together like notes
side by side on the scale
played at the same time.
I lay on the floor
beneath the great instrument
and feel the waves of it
as if they originate inside me—
play it again, I beg
the cellist, and then,
when it’s done, I beg her
again, play it again,
And she does. And she does,
the warm notes filling
any chill they find.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cello, haiku, music, poem, poetry, Rostropovich, tanka on July 1, 2012| 2 Comments »
soft thread of tune
beyond humming
still the attempt
*
though the musician
is long, long gone
strands of dark arpeggios
tucked
in my hair
*
because
he once played
that Bach prelude
I feel now so
beautiful
*
long after
the listening
still listening
*
almost like lips
bruised from a night of kissing
my ears this morning after
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cello, losing the self, loss, music, poem, Rostropovich on June 30, 2012| 2 Comments »
It is Bach
I tell the broccoli
knife keeps quarter beats
*
all my empty spaces
alive with cello and silence—
every loss
has made it possible
this breathtaking resonance
*
the music touches
me everywhere, everywhere
purple gladiolas
*
in the kitchen
I am being spun, whirling
the cello bows