Bits and Pieces

Lessons from a Musician

The beginning is simple -

three opening notes sound.

You wait -

for what, you're not sure.

Inspiration? A rush of

musical passion? 

Your fingers are poised

at the ready,

to dance, to sing, to play

the melody of the heart.

Suddenly it begins,

the beauty of legato,

of happy times and jubilation,

of sweet innocence and love.

But, like always, tide

seem to turn, and sweet

becomes sour,

crashing octaves and

harmonies, a fervor of anger,

of confusion and bereavement.

Expressions fail,

this is not music,

this is life under the bars,

the measures of black and white,

the reading between the

lines to find colors,

colors less... black and white.

A climbing crescendo

inclines to mountains

of hurt and aspirations

you feel will never come true

and then suddenly -

All seems to be quiet.

A pianissimo,

thin but strong,

quiet but loud,

hard to match in its beauty.

For this is the whisper

of natural, organic matter,

of life's creations and

what it must feel like

in the eye of the storm.

You think of things unsteady,

unstable, a pretty lace parasol,

the first flight of a butterfly

with paper-thin wings.

This, this is the journey

through time and space,

represented on a

yellowing page of sheet music,

but it feels much more.

A lifelong legacy,

perhaps the trek across

a new but familiar road.

Maybe the notes that leap

from your fingers and soul

are not truly notes

at all

but rather fragments of

this life of yours.

Maybe somewhere in this

piece there is something to be learned,

a lesson of humanity,

a lesson of love and beauty

and loss weaving together

into some concerto,

you though if you heard one

you heard them all,

but in each of these songs

you uncover just a little something 

more, a part of yourself that may have been hiding.

So when all else fails,

you turn to music as a

guiding light across this

vast space that seems so cold.

But perhaps, we can all find

the sweetest melodies,

an allegrissimo of soft brilliance,

amidst the isolation

if only we dare to listen.