#1916 - poem for world piano day

 

1916

6.89

30.iii.25

poem for world piano day

to the memory of Bartolomeo Cristofori

 

pebbles in a stream

skulls full of spare teeth police won’t find

see the daylit stars all twinkle

 

and in among the idea shining –

just a few bars –

little thing I dream over again

 

piano smoke to cure a guitar

perverse the age we’re in

 

Gershwin, Jerry Lee, Little Richard

Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Oscar Petersen

pianos fell on them all in the cradle

let’s not forget Fats

 

long neglected notes

sombre shrill far left

where nobody plays

 

Rachmaninoff is typing a memoir

Satie made a little pile in his flat

leapt at it like a madman

died to break your heart  

the piano drove him to it

that long long smile – a taunt

 

it was an attack of the Stravinskies

 

everyone’s getting rid of pianos

 

can’t carry such things to the crossroads

the devil comes to you

 

there’s Liberace, Chopin, moonlight

but most of all there’s Chico

Chico points the way