I wanted the huge applause after the silence.
Wanting to cleave clearly in the mind
the wooden chopping boards of the house
into piano keys,
and the long tables of the dining room
into some imagined concert: Do you hear it?
Yes? Do you not since then not realize
this grand scale?
The poor boy is playing a sonata
in his head, yes? Yes. Now. (Pushed
into agreement as if pushed by birth
into an empty room without choice
and flowers for wallpaper and a mirror
kept blind dark in a drawer)
There was a piano, once, in my head.
And a stage. And the world surprised
by what had been found. Difficult piece:
the left hand flying over the right
and the air-pedal stepped through and clean
to sustain. And all the world standing
behind kitchen counters and the dinner plates
waiting for the imagined overture
to complete its applause:
If only there was no need to explain.
If only the real thing was as clear
and as audible as
once the beautiful music.
*
Brown beaver in a stream
and the grass green
Small girl on a swing
and a bird wing
And because he thinks it’s meant to be spring,
he colors the clear edges of all living
things in his piano book--
Where the paw touches sharp the blades
of the green patch and the bare arm
of the blonde girl arcs her slender
reach to the sun. And old Brahms who lifts his hand
in a wave, even if this is meant to be
a slow waltz he’s playing, and a packed
piano concert hall he’s set in where a bright
blue blazer’s not the right suit
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Submitted on May 01, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:22 min read
- 3 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | X X X X X X X X X X X A X X X X B C D X A X X X X X X C D D D D X X X A X X X B X |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,387 |
Words | 274 |
Stanzas | 41 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
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"I wanted the huge applause after the silence." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/74630/i-wanted-the-huge-applause-after-the-silence.>.
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