Closed Eyes Comments

I've enjoyed your poem for multiple reasons. First, I also love poetry and music and have tried to write about the experience of both performing music and just enjoying it, living in it. It is a challenge....and a FUN one. Second, I enjoyed your poem, because I took it as a personal quest to experience new music. So, I've listened to Closed Eyes a few times, then I listened again to the Adagio from Mahler's Sixth Symphony (love the strings and the horns) , and a read up a bit on the biography of Takemitsu. Then, when that was done, I began free associating about some of my favorite musical experiences...like hearing Beethoven's 9th Symphony performed by the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl...the night I realized that classical musical should be performed outdoors....it was simply amazing...then watching Valery Gergiev perform on YouTube with the whole family, The Minneapolis Orchestra with the kids (while people next to me asked my son not to sniffle so loudly...he had a cold) ....So, back to your poem. It seems the first two stanzas, you are doing something similar to me...free associating. You close your eyes, you feel the music, and images creep into your mind directed by the musical performance, by the notes. I read that he wrote many movie scores, and listening to his music, I can see how it would add so much to the mood of a storyline. The third stanza, you explain what you are doing and encourage the reader to do the same, to 'close your eyes and listen to the piano.....sounds and signals are perceived as the same thing' Sounds and signals meaning that certain notes denote a certain event, visual, or occurrence. Perhaps a theme? I looked up the painting that inspired this musical piece and then I looked up the sculpture that inspired the painter. In fact, this poem, is a poem about a 'song' that is about a painting, that is about a sculpture...and so it goes (Port Trakl style) .....What this is Daniel...is an example of how art is....it is not original...it is all stolen...across time and place...from artist to artist.....none of it truly original, but ALL of it UNIQUE. It is an example of our connectedness. And I go on and on! :) A journey on this one.

I love this poem. Closing our eyes gives us a certain freedom to listen more intensely. Somehow the flow of our thoughts is affected by what we see. Closing our eyes lets us listen, not only to the music around us but also to our inner voice, to the universe and wherever our thoughts come. Poetry and music, they belong together so much. Very interesting poem and notes

A lovely poem, you have the ability to take the reader from the daily madness of their lives (such as mine) to a place of serenity and zeal within two lines. One can tell that you love music because your poems have a natural rhythmic element to them. Your attention to detail and creative imagery will make you one of the most successful poets on poemhunter and the fact that you write with simplicity will continue to make your work easy to read and enjoyable as time progresses. Excellent poem by an excellent poet.