the days of awkward gifts

the days of awkward gifts

‘Leaf steal’ as stolen by the Weathercats

those days
mother’s day
father’s day
you grumbled
to find a decent
gift for…
there were
gifts of yours
that found
their way into
the cupboard of
the put away,
the things that
aged their newness
in its dark,
the too good,
the too odd,
for really
what need
had they of gifts
who had common sense
in barrowloads,
whose measure never

The Well-Tempered Clavier

The Well-Tempered Clavier*
                   to an unknown pianist

‘Leaf and drop-bomb’, image skimmed off the water by the Weathercats

the lady was playing piano
a lifetime of Bach in her fingers
we saw leaves falling cold
in rain landing on puddles
the downward tinkle of autumn.

1974 – 15 may 2013

*this piece has taken almost 40 years in its creation from first seeing a
programme on our black and white TV in my last year at high school on a woman pianist, possibly American or Canadian, who specialised in playing only Bach, to thinking today of words to tell what I then heard and saw. While she played, the camera showed leaves falling in rain, landing on puddles. The program ran on a wet Saturday afternoon; I have long forgotten the pianist’s name but do remember her passion was the pieces that comprise Bach’s ‘The Well-tempered Clavier’.

Copyright ©2013 Peter Le Baige.  All Rights Reserved

The music is the prelude from Bach’s ‘Prelude and Fugue in C♯ minor, BWV 849’ from ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1’ by J.S. Bach, as interpreted here on stage by András Schiff.

 

tree of joy

tree of joy

‘Tree forgotten at a streetlit turning’, image discarded by the Weathercats

at dusk
when clouds
are worked
in glow
the swallow’s
eye will flit
upon
…
at dusk
when clouds
drift rain
in dash on
sea
…
at dusk
when stars
swim out of
blue on arms
of glister
…
whatever sky
it is,
at dusk
stand under
that tree, the
one neglected
in view,
the one at the
corner unnoticed
in turning, tree
over a gate
never opened,