As a songwriter, I sometimes have thoughts or ideas that wouldn't particularly make a good song. This is the outlet for that stuff...

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Gershwin's Ghost

(Note: The Aeolean Duo-Art Weber reproducing piano was built in 1925. Through an intricate system of pneumatic controls, it eerily produced the expression of an actual performance by famous keyboard artists as recorded on perforated paper rolls.)


The arcs and swirls

Cap each leg

Walnut framed islands of relief

With flourishes covered in gold leaf foil

To draw attention away from

The instrument's secrets

By some hidden network

Of muscle and tendon

The black and white keys begin to move

Finger-like

He is here

Presenting his most famous

Rhapsody

It is his touch

That carves and gilds notes

From the walnut air

It is his pedal

That builds reverberant bridges

Between musical relief

And for a few moments

Even the skeptic finds it impossible

Not to believe

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