Raven Poetry: Online Poetry Journal

Michael Keshigian is a performing musician and collegiate music educator in Boston, U.S.A.  His poems and short stories have appeared in numerous print and online journals. To date, has had 5 chapbooks of poetry published and is a multiple Pushcart Prize and Best Of The Net nominee.  His latest book, Warm Summer Memories was published in the summer of 2007 by Maverick Duck Press. 

 

LIFE

 

It’s like fishing

on a starless night

when the moon sinks

into midnight’s ocean,

our dreams are the hooks

upon which we bait

our raw hearts

and cast

on a monofilament thread,

pass reality

into the splash of the universe,

holding the line tightly

for a nibble

though it’s lost to sight.

Its long descent

tightens our stomachs,

dries our tongues,

yet with a sigh of hope

we anticipate

the subtle tug of fulfillment.

 

MUSIC APPRECIATION

 

He asked them

to ta ke the music outside,

listen as they held it toward the sky,

let the wind rattle its stems,

or place the sheet against an ear

to hear a tune

through the hollow of its shell.

He told them to jog

the parameters of the staves,

walk the winding road of its clef

and imagine living there.

Perhaps they could drop a feather

upon the music’s resonance,

follow its float among the timbres,

or ski the slopes of musical peaks,

gliding unencumbered into its valleys,

then thank the composer

for varying the landscape

when they left the lodge.

But the class was determined

to stalk each phrase,

analyze chords for manipulation, cunning

and seek the hidden form.

They handcuffed the notes

to the music stand,

even flogged the melody

with a drum mallet,

until it whistled a meaning

never intended.