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| "Forcing that / Melody right to the cheap seats" (via) |
Rhapsody
– Ben Ziman-Bright
– Ben Ziman-Bright
Sat in the cheap seats
Of Symphony Hall, squinting
As the instruments tuned up
I could pick out only you:
Fourth row back and clutching
Your viola, bright hair spilt
Across the strings. You were
Deep in a flurry of pages
With bitten lip, too
Intent on forcing that
Melody right to the cheap seats
To notice me up there, ears straining
To block out any sound but yours.
(found in New Poems on the Underground 2006; borrowed from here, a blog page holding a lot of resonant short poems)
Of Symphony Hall, squinting
As the instruments tuned up
I could pick out only you:
Fourth row back and clutching
Your viola, bright hair spilt
Across the strings. You were
Deep in a flurry of pages
With bitten lip, too
Intent on forcing that
Melody right to the cheap seats
To notice me up there, ears straining
To block out any sound but yours.
(found in New Poems on the Underground 2006; borrowed from here, a blog page holding a lot of resonant short poems)
"Rhapsody" has appeared in exam papers and on many blogs. Ben Ziman-Bright, a young poet from London, won the Young Poets on the Underground Competition in 2004 with this poem. Other winners were Rebecca Hawkes (Stitching the Bayeux Tapestry) and L.E. Harris, (Pigeon Patterns).
My late husband played in orchestras from time to time - not strings with bright hair spilt across, but trumpet back in the brass section. I sat through quite a few concerts up in the cheap seats, straining to pick out his notes from the others. This poet got it right - I guess I always did try to block out any sound but his.
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