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Life Arts    H4'ed 6/2/24

Me alone


Gary Lindorff
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Piano Old Grand Piano Keyboard Edited 2020
Piano Old Grand Piano Keyboard Edited 2020
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I gave a concert in an empty auditorium

On an old upright piano that was on the stage

As part of the set of a play that was opening in a few days.

I have never played so well or so passionately

Like Thom Yorke.

There was no one there but me.

I was exploring the campus where my wife used to go to school.

It was Sunday and hardly anyone was there.

My wife was at a reunion gathering in a tent

So I decided to check out the arts center,

A huge modern structure of geometrically cast concrete

Both stark and inviting and castle-like in scale

With large vaulting and irregular spaces inside

As if designed to accommodate 10 foot people.

When I came to the entrance of the auditorium

A sign on the door said, "Performance in progress..

Do not disturb." I opened the door

To the empty auditorium taking in the rows of velvet seats

And the dark stage furnished like a living room

With a sofa and a couple of over-stuffed chairs,

A table with some books on it and a lamp

And the piano which beckoned to me.

As I walked across the fake living room

Something began to happen to me.

I became a man who boarded in a house

In some city in 1930 or 1940. When I sat down at the piano

I turned to scan all the empty seats

Just to make sure that I was truly alone

And I played my heart out. It was wild

It was messy. It was good. It was cathartic.

And I was not disturbed.


(Article changed on Jun 02, 2024 at 9:08 PM EDT)

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Gary Lindorff is a poet, writer, blogger and author of five nonfiction books, three collections of poetry, "Children to the Mountain", "The Last recurrent Dream" (Two Plum Press), "Conversations with Poetry (coauthored with Tom Cowan), and (more...)
 

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