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Presenting poetry and dance as a unified art form

OUT OF TEMPER, OUT OF TUNE

BY Jan K. Dederick, El Cerrito, CA

 

Piano’s out of temper, piano’s out of tune.

She clangs instead of sings, I don’t want to play with her.

Mister Tuner, his black leather bag,

long strips of red felt, dampers and fork,

will bring us together gain.

 

He starts in the middle, tempers the octave

expands the fourths, contracts the fifths,

like a crossword puzzle of cheating tones

so the highs and the lows will blend with the middles

when he’s done.

 

He seems to bang the keys, not musical at all,

and in his other hand, a funny lovely wrench,

rosewood handle, cranks the pins a tiny bit

tight,  little too tight, a tiny bit looser.

I don’t know what it is he hears.

 

Eighty eight keys, two hundred twenty two strings,

all needing to vibrate at their own perfect speed

so the bad temper will sweeten again to beauty.

In the end it does, and it makes me wonder,

 

isn’t there such a craftsman

For our human relations?

Someone who knows exactly how far

to tweak each of us

to render the whole chord of us

from cacophony to harmony?

Someone who hears in each string of us

our potential for resonance?


Jan Dederick
Jan Dederick, El Cerrito, CA, reads her Grand Prize Winning Poem, "Out of Temper, Out of Tune"
"Out of Temper, Out of Tune" by Jan Dederick of El Cerrito, CA
"Out of Temper, Out of Tune" performed by Natica Angilly's Poetic Dance Theater Company
"Out of Temper, Out of Tune" by Jan Dederick, El Cerrito, CA, at the Dancing Poetry Festival, 2013
"Out of Temper, Out of Tune" by Jan Dederich
Jan Dederick of El Cerrito, CA, takes an on stage bow with Natica Angilly's Poetic Dance Theater Company