There are concerts
no audience
ever sees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The morning
you manage
one page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The afternoon
you stop
before forcing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The evening
you decide
rest
is not surrender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I used to think
practice
meant repeating
until mastery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now
it sometimes means
returning tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The illness
did not steal
the music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It stole
Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ordinary Tuesday
when fingers obeyed,
when sleep arrived,
when a chair
was only a chair
and not a negotiation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scales
remained the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
C major
still waited
with unreasonable optimism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bach
did not simplify himself
out of kindness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The piano
never whispered,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Take your time.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead,
the body
became the difficult instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tune this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adjust that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wait for the pain
to loosen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hope the hands
remember
what the mind
still hears perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cruelest part
was not forgetting
how to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was remembering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hearing,
inside yourself,
the musician
you had been
while negotiating
with the musician
you had become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Illness
did not teach me
gratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It taught me
limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The gratitude
came later,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the first day<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a single phrase<\/p>\n\n\n\n
returned home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are concertsno audienceever sees. The morningyou manageone page. The afternoonyou stopbefore forcing it. The eveningyou deciderestis not surrender. I used to thinkpracticemeant repeatinguntil mastery. Nowit sometimes meansreturning tomorrow. The […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[902],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-rockbob","post-9627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}