Evensong X (19 February 2024)

 In praise of scales,

ascending,

descending, alternating

tones from one octave to another - a call and response -

arpeggiating like running

away, a crescendo, a denouement.

Da capo.

Here we go again.

From the top. From the head. From the beginning.

Da capo.

When I revise my writing I lean into my piano practice, running scales and chord progressions, sometimes blues riffs, sometimes a simple phrase: 2 quarter notes, 3 halves.

Rest.

I play the same thing over and over, for years, since my last lesson. Practice makes practice perfect.

Unlike my writing, the piano practice is pure exercise. Weight-training for grey matter; a commitment to functional, at least. Functional so the writing, the thing I practice that is more than just exercise but for (hopefully) sourcing strength to other thinkers/dreamers/lovers, can be made.

In praise of scales. Footpaths to stability.

My latest essay in progress excavates the memories of a month spent living in a barn near Princeton, NJ and a hike through the Great Swamp, just north of there.

An ascending along geographical lines to wander and wonder into that regenerative place, the swamp.

A descending into the past for the telling. A revision to make it clear. Scales falling from the eyes.

Da capo.

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