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Villa Lobos in E at the Arboretum

Each day I tune my guitar
To the bird who sings in E.
The one with perfect pitch
While counting 1&2,3, 1&2,3,
Fine a tuning fork as can be.

This is where it spends the season,
Staying hidden in the leaves
Having sex with he’s or she’s,
Shouting like “The Birds”
In Respighi’s “Suite in G”.

It’s brown and lives in trees-
I’m not sure of the species;
Here I play 'en plein air'.
Not practice ornithology-
And it’s summer everywhere!

The other ones in primary colors
Of reds and blue and yellows,
Go from A-flat and end in C,
And often sing a bit off key;
The crows clear their throats
And the piccolobird won’t shut up...

But it is summer, after all!
And it’s just the orchestra rehearsing
With flutes and brass of passing geese.
Now the woodpecker rattles a drum roll
Announcing the anticipated maestro.
The applause rises from a breeze
Which brings the garden to its feet.

My guitar and the flying philharmonic,
Performing Villa Lobos in E.
O Saudade! O Corazon!
The prelude has samba wings!

About This Poem

Last Few Words: Villa Lobos was the most famous symphonic composer of Brazil in the 20th Century, who also played guitar and wrote a well known series of Choros and Preludes, mostly in the key of E. One of Ottorino Respeghi's famous compositons, The Birds is also known as as Suite in G. Saudade is the soul of samba, expressing a feeling of nostalgia.

Editing Stage: Editing - rough draft

About the Author

Country/Region: Washington DC

Favorite Poets: D.Thomas, Stevens, Eliot, Blake, Rimbaud, Oliver, Delmore Schwartz, Neruda, Marti, Commings, Moore, Cohen, Merwin, Borges, Breton, Baudelaire, Sabines, Voznesensky, Eluard, Oliver,

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Comments

R

raj

7 years 1 month ago

Hi Eumolpus

you've created a nostalgia with words of.. a guitar playing tunes of creatures singing in the woods...creating a great experience of listening to the melody of your poem....
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Eumolpus

Eumolpus

7 years 1 month ago

thanks raj

I've been just enjoying writing on the light side lately. Hey, it's summer!

gregwa8

gregwa8

7 years 1 month ago

I LOVE this! to take the

I LOVE this! to take the technical mastery of a composer, as well as the feel (saudade) and apply it to the birds, and vice versa. i feel like i have been to a symphony, en plein air, where the birds are singing and the orchestra are playing! a very bright read!