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To a Young Girl Playing Chopin
Henry Matthew Ward

Beware, my child.
You hold a mysterious power
in your hands...
a language beyond understanding,
more exotic than foreign lands.
The gift of ecstasy and anguish
are yours to give or withhold
as fingers reach for the depths
of a musical soul.
Beauty to the mind's ear becomes
a vision of grace in the mind's eye.
You become the recipient
of the listener's devotion.
Your loveliness is enhanced ten fold.
Heartstrings vibrate in sympathetic emotion
with those of the instrument,
swaying in time with the pulse of your beat,
but their murmurs will not cease
with the playing.

©1997 Henry Matthew Ward

Wow, Matt, did you write that? It's pretty good. I take it you like Chopin.

It's more than pretty good...it's incredible!

Means alot to me too - i'm currently learning his 1st ballade.

x

You just had to one-up me, didn't you, Princess? Ya know, I'm the only one who's given Matt any credit for two weeks!

But yer right, it is incredible. I just haven't played that much Chopin recently. :rolleyes:

Jeez - sorry AU. I was only giving the guy the credit he deserves.

x

Well, on the up side, we're the only two that have noticed his outstanding talent. I wonder if he's even checked back to see what we thought of it, and if he will reply.

And, princess, no need to apologize. I should be thanking you for supporting me. I was beginning to think I was the only one who liked his poem.

This is becoming quite a regular thing isn't it? Us falling out and then making up!

x

Yeah, you're right!

At least we don't stay mad at each other.

No, because that wouldn't be very nice at all. I don't like being mad... the world is a much nicer place when everyone gets along.

x

You said that right!

Wow, that's a great poem, Matt! Do you have any others to post? How 'bout Beethoven, or don't you like him...

Anyway, I'm gonna past that poem on my music book so I can read it everyday - don't worry, I'll give you the credit!

Lovely!

Well, I finally found my way back here, over a year after posting that poem, "To a Yound Girl Playing Chopin". I'm totally unsure of how to post a reply. I don't know if this will show up for everyone that was so kind to compliment it or not, but I'll give it a try. Thanks to all.

You asked if I have any more like it. I have found a couple more of musically inspired poems of mine. Here's one that is not specifically piano, in fact it's inspired by an actual visit to a German Basilika at Vespers. The music referrenced was Gregorian Chant:

Vespers
Henry Matthew Ward

A bell peals softly in the distance
announcing the end of another day.
Unlike the silver dew of morning
which revitalizes the spirit,
sunset brings a golden haze,
dusting the receptive mind
with evanescent thoughts
of mortality and immortality.

Kyrie Eleison!

Footfalls of the pious approach.
The Benedictines of Weingarten
enter the sanctity of the Basilika
accompanied by the millennium chant:

Christe Eleison!

Echoes from a thousand years resound within the walls;
antiphonal harmonies of present and past,
a counterpoint created by time, heard by the soul.

At this hallowed moment, the liturgy of the church
gains its proper meaning before the empty throne:

We proclaim your death and your resurrection,
Lord Jesus, Until you come in Glory.

The canon of the Mass shall continue
down to the end of days,
When the seals will be taken away
from the Book of the Lamb,
And in the radiance of the final sunset,
God shall be seen…as he is.

Kyrie Eleison!


© 1993 Henry Matthew Ward

This poem fits Chopin's Nocturne in D-flat Op. 27 No. 2., and me, perfectly! lol

I love your second poem the best though.

And here is one more musically oriented poem which will, no doubt, totally destroy any image I may have created of being a sentimental fool.

Divorce Music
Henry Matthew Ward

The music for weddings is chosen with care,
Consider a moment the opposite fare:
Instead of the wedding bells, we'd likely hear
Some heck's bells a' ringing out loudly and clear.
The Clair de Lunes preceding sweet Honeymoons...
Have gradually turned into these Looney Tunes:
It used to be Pachebel's Canon in D,
But now all the cannon are artillery!
A Nocturne was heard long before their first fight,
But that modulated into: "Not Tonight!"
The Swan was played for them their wedding day,
But now he's just "hen-pecked" and she swims away.
The Mendelssohn Song Without Words has become
"I'm not speaking to you!” and "Don't touch me you bum!"
Though it was the Trois Chanson sung when they wed,
A Ménage a Trois recently made her see red.
It was Meditation by one Charles Gounod,
But now "Mediation" is where they must go.
And Ave Maria has segued into
"Good Bye and Good Riddance you lousy rat, you!"


©1995 Matt Ward


This one is definitely not inspired by any personal experience! My first and only wife and I celebrated our 43rd anniversary this fall.