prompt #11 ~ waiting for music

Waiting for music

 

A harp is mystery, unlike

the piano, which I played easily.

A harp is rare in red dirt country

and I had only books for teachers.

But I wanted to play the harp

not the harp of angels

but the Celtic harp of bards

 

My harp was simple, plain

and sturdy. Months I worked

to make her mine, trading

time & skills for music.

But the music never came.

 

She has followed me across the world

and back again, my Celtic darling.

Like a lover out of bardic song,

she has crossed mountain & sea

sleeping in dusty corners

To be with me.

Hours I practiced scales, aligning

clumsy fingers w/ graceful strings.

Still, the music hasn’t come.

 

Perhaps now, as the horizon draws down

and the light of August thins to dusk

I will learn to sing with her. Learn

her strings as if they were my own hands.

The music might well come.

2 thoughts on “prompt #11 ~ waiting for music

  1. A sturdy, simple, plain harp of Celtic bards, so unlike that of heavenly angels so far removed from us: this image alone brings the song back to me. I had never heard it before, and I was struck by strength and liveliness of the music.

    I also thought about the butterflies I saw in other videos from that hour, and those images came to me when I read “. . .followed me across the world . . . crossed mountains and seas. . .” but then you brought me back to images of strings, patient fingers plucking bit by bit.

    I really enjoyed the journey this poem created for me.

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