Here’s today’s picture:
Bruno Bielefeld
This image on Wikimedia caught my eye because 1) it’s non-nature (and I post tons of nature pix), and 2) I just wrote about a chandelier yesterday. It’s interesting how the chandelier outshines the piano in this ad. If I were the piano maker, I’d have said, “Hey, shrink that chandelier a little bit!”
This picture makes me think of:
1. Why are there machines at the club directly under the panel T.V.s. Given how frequently pieces of equipment are under repair, it makes me nervous to be cycling away with a 300-pound metal object over my head.
2. The pianist looks like a crow, with the tails of his tux being his tail feathers.
3. I hope the chandelier-maker went halfsies on this ad!
Here’s my poem first draft.
Midnight Crow
peck-
peck-
pecks
truck’s gaping grillsharp beak
stick-
stick-
sticks,
caws quick and shrill–Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved
What does this image make YOU think of? Whatever enters your mind, write a quick 15 words or less poem and share it in the comments! Feel free to comment on each others’ poems and tell what your favorite part is!
CONCERT
Midnight keys,
Ivories,
Finger pounding,
Mozart sounding,
One more number
if you please.
Ooh, this one has such a smooth, jazzy feel somehow (despite the Mozart reference). Love “Midnight keys.”
Sorry I’m a little late! But your crows inspired me. (Also, I just saw the trailer for A Leaf Can Be–beautiful words and pictures! I want that book!)
Black piano keys
like crows lined up
on wire in rows
against white
winter sky.
–Kate Coombs (Book Aunt)
a chandelier,
a thousand lights—
sole piano in the night.
Ohh, nice contrast!
Blood on the Keys
My audience
inspires
my music,
a matador enticing
his bull,
my hands plunge
into you
-Pamela Ross
Wow! Those last two lines–oh my gosh. Don’t take this the wrong way, but this totally makes me think (besides just a passionate musician) of a serial killer :>)
P.S. You totally win most memorable poem!
Smiling.
His performance- the attraction.
Blinking spaceship- big distraction.
Cindyb
Ha! I knew that wasn’t just a chandelier!
LOVE this!
ellie
Pingback: Comment Challenge 2012 « Think Kid, Think!
RAGE! Punched out
through hands and feet
Then softened
saddened
silent
sweet
.
Lots of emotion packed in those 12 words. Nice!
Beneath the chandelier
I Shine
So I say this stage
Is Mine
All is divine
- Anne McKenna
Love the assertiveness in this one, Anne!
I’m not musically inclined
So for the good of mankind
I’ve humbly declined…
Carnegie Hall.
You are on a roll. Each one clever, and so different.
ellie
Thanks, Ellie! These were fun to do.
Wow, you ARE on a roll. Or a piano bench. :>) Another great ending.
LOL! Thanks! I don’t think of myself as a poet, but I do have a lot of fun with your 15-word exercises. Thanks for providing these.
PS: An editor once asked me to write a short story (and I mean *short* — less than 500 words) for an anthology and she had already submitted the title to the printer for the table of contents. The title? “Music in the Air.” Me? Write about music? So, instead of writing about music (because I totally lack the knowledge and the editor had given me an almost impossibly short deadline…so no real time to research), I wrote about the anxiety of going on stage and giving a recital — been there, done that with dance recitals. I look forward to Thursdays (my day off, I meet with my critique group…and I check your website to see what I can come up with in 15 words.).
I love hearing these behind-the-scenes stories. It’s always great to read how we writers bring our own experiences to fairly unrelated writing assignments!
I’m so glad you’ve been joining in on Thursdays:>)
I”m so bad at each
piano lesson
that my teacher quit
and opened
a delicatessen.
Love this, Pam. It immediately makes me picture an entire collection of poems that each start, “I’m so bad…” Wouldn’t be very PC in the atmosphere of encouragement we try to create for kids, but it sure would be funny! Nice (unexpected) rhyme!
Thanks, Laura. The truth behind this poem is that when I was ten I had six months of piano lessons and then my teacher quit to become an insurance agent. I figured it was my awful playing…and I really and truly was awful. I absolutely hated piano. I was a dancer..took lessons from when I was six until in my early twenties (when I was part of a ballet troupe). I hated sitting at the keys. My heart wanted to dance, not sit. Hmmm. Should have written about that.
My fingers dance over keys,
as my feet yearn to do.
I followed my heart.
Oh, this is lovely! (And have you read Lorie Ann Grover’s On Pointe?)
The weakest link
broke
I screamed
I bled
then I awoke
No more
midnight pizza
Ha! That midnight pizza will get you every time. I had weird dreams last night, and, sure enough, I had had a late-night snack. Love the ending of your poem!
Piano Recital
While others play,
I only hear
the mistakes
I made.
- ellie
Awwww…that hurts. This poem is like a needle puncturing hope. It’s so true. I remember dreading piano recitals. One of the main reasons I couldn’t wait to quit piano was that I hated the dang recitals.
On this night
lights too bright
tux too hot
sweat a lot
what a plight
Hehehe–the truth behind the elegance:>)
Chandelier Meets Piano
Warm fingers of light
stretch, long and slight,
balance, fermata, on the keys
all night.
I had to look up fermata, then loved this image. First line my favorite.
ellie
Like ellie, I had to look up fermata–I had seen the word before but couldn’t remember its meaning. Love poems that make me learn things:>) Those first two lines especiallly capture me–lovely.
Damocles at the piano
beneath the chandelier
fears playing fortississimo
will ruin his career
by the way, i’m fairly certain the point of the oversized chandelier is to point out what an opulent gem the bechstein is – a cut crystal work that large implied only the finest and rarest of tastes could afford it. but the way franz liszt appeared to be playing beneath it made me wonder if he wasn’t trying the rattle the rafters a little, hence the poem.
A fun rhyme, and to me, a great image of the chandelier crashing down.
ellie
I totallly get the opulence thing, and it certainly sets the mood…but I still think the chandelier is totally outshining (haha) the piano. LOVE a chandelier as the sword of Damocles. Fantastic! Would ruin more than just his career:>)
yes, the chandelier comes crashing down like a cymbal/symbol on a failed career!