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You are here: Home / jan dedrick / Steve Eulberg's Poetry and Writing Blog 2016-08-06 06:10:00

Steve Eulberg's Poetry and Writing Blog 2016-08-06 06:10:00

August 6, 2016 By Steve Eulberg

Here is another poem I’ve found for you.

I was the musician for a marvelous event near Earth Day at the Gallery at HerChurch in San Francisco.

This was a poetry reading by the poets of San Francisco Peace and Hope.  

It was published in their Literary journal devoted to poetry and art.  (4th Issue)

Out of Temper Out of Tune

Out of Temper, Out of Tune
Piano’s out of temper, piano’s out of tune.
She clangs instead of sings, I don’t want to play with her.
Mister Tuner, his black leather bag,
long strips of red felt, dampers and fork,
will bring us together again.

He starts in the middle, tempers the octave
expands the fourths, contracts the fifths,
like a crossword puzzle of cheating tones
so the highs and the lows will blend with the middles
when he’s done.

He seems to bang the keys, not musical at all,
and in his other hand, a funny lovely wrench,
rosewood handle, cranks the pins a tiny bit
tight, a little too tight, a tiny bit looser.
I don’t know what it is he hears.

Eighty eight keys, two hundred twenty two strings,
all needing to vibrate at their own perfect speed
so the bad temper will sweeten again to beauty.
In the end it does, and it makes me wonder,
isn’t there such a craftsman
for our human relations?

Someone who knows exactly how far
to tweak each of us
to render the whole chord of us
from cacophony to harmony?
Someone who hears in each string of us
Our potential for resonance?

-Jan Dederick

Filed Under: jan dedrick, peace and hope, piano, Poetry and Writing, temper, tune, tuning

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