ROMANCING THE EAR

I had a romantic professor once

for a class called “Music History.”

But that’s not what he talked about;

he was also a “Sound Engineer,”

so I can now explain, to anyone

interested, about a phenomenon called

“sympathetic vibrations,” so they too

would know why the lead crystal bowl

at the jewelry store where I worked

was now nothing more than a pile of

sparkling slivers.

I still think it strange the only time I’ve heard

the term was when it was so perfectly apropos.

I could use an occasional sympathetic vibration

like Alice used to do, but I digress.

How many musical notes had to align to put

a misguided marching band dude and a crazy

inventory loss in such close sequence while I

was there to see in all the vast universe of time

and space?

The Milky Way flies along at one million

three hundred forty thousand miles per hour while

spinning at a mere one hundred thirty miles per second.

Sol flies along at five hundred, fourteen thousand

mph, pulling Earth and its sixty-seven thousand miles

per hour orbit along, all while we sit and spin

at another thousand miles an hour.

Like I said, Dr. Smith was a romantic, just ask his

secretary with the mussed hair and smeared lipstick.

I gained a lot of useless information from him about

crumbling chimneys, and metal fatigue, and how cute

stenographers keep their jobs, but no matter how much

I want to cut back across time and all those impossible

miles to ask why Dr. Smith never told us the difference

between classical Mozart and Romantic Liszt...

A great question you say? Well...

it was on the final.

Reviews

[Lara]

Once i hit the verse with all the numbers, Vol (I confess), my cognition went dizzy-blind. But it seems there's a whole lot that spins very fast! Even the DNA in our cells unzip and rebuild with Vivaldi like punchiness, I've heard...

Meanwhile, what resonates for some just doesn't for others. This piece reminds me of scripture that reads "those with ears to hear, let them hear."

And the line on "sympathetic vibration" serves a good reminder: it's OK to drink from the bottle sometimes - just incase" 😄

[Vol]

Lara,
Fast as things move in space, it is still ponderous slow, so slow that humanity's entire history of looking skyward is too short to mention... on the other hand, Astronomers say Betelgeuse could explode at any minute... which mean decades, maybe centuries after I'm gone... I'd have liked to see that. On cosmic distances and age and time... the only way for it to make sense is as a created thing that is everything.
Vol

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Some of my best college classes were the ones in which I really learned nothing new, but I did learn how to use, analyze, digest much of what I already knew from outside the classroom.
I appreciate them all. I want to understand the "why" not just have a lot of information I can do nothing with.
j.

[Lorry]

You've gotta love nutty proffesors who talk about what they are interested in and not the boring old curriculum, but another question pops to mind and that is ... how long did he keep his job, especially after all those students looked for the extra exam pages that was missing regarding stenographers attributes and as for your Mozart and Lizst query, I'd just put it down to they are spelled differently and be happy with that! 😃

[Vol]

Lorrry,
When I was seven, I fell off my bike and fractured my skull, as the voices keep reminding me, and killed all those braincells who knew what numbers are for, and all those that have to do with music theory as well. I can't even play the radio in tune...
so I write poetry, I'm colorblind, too so painting is out of the question... so I write poetry...
Vol

[ETERNITY]

@Vol, I love it when the authors I adore have written new works for me to devour!
The last stanza is a shaker to learn Mr Smith never explained the very thing that was on the finals.
Your voice is mesmerizing. I hear you in all your works.
Gosh, that just blows up your videos! I wish you'd post them more!
Awesome! Thanks!

[Vol]

Dessi,
Thank you! I'm planning on it... still can't remember what I did with my new recording equipment...
Vol

[ETERNITY]

@Vol Being color blind should never stop you from painting! Look at Picasso!

[Vol]

Well, I wasn't going to say anything... but there is that bit about missing talent...

[ETERNITY]

Volcano, reading you is like reading a beautiful encyclopedia. Talent? You are well endowed.