This week I’ve been experimenting with etherees. I wrote one inspired by my backyard birds, one about the beautiful strawberry moon that appeared this week, and one inspired by a Mary Oliver poem, “Music Lessons.” I took violin lessons for a dozen or so years as I was growing up. On Saturday mornings I traveled to my teacher’s house. She had three dogs with very musical names— Cadenza, Melody, and Trill. Her studio was on the third floor in an old house decorated with all things musical, including the large tapestry that hung on the wall in the studio. Thank you, Mary Oliver, for taking me back to that space I loved, and for providing the title of this etheree:
Music Lessons
each
note climbs
up the scale
and down the trail
of a melody,
creating the music
drifting throughout the old house
with the sleeping dogs on rich rugs
who dream of adventures and journeys
to places where harmonies stir the soul.
Draft, 2022RoseCappelli
Michele has the roundup this week here. Be sure to stop by for her tribute to her Dad, and daughters and dads everywhere. And for those of you celebrating this weekend, Happy Father’s Day!
Imagine the Possibilities 
Thank you, Rose, for bringing us your violin playing days! Let’s get together and play a duet? (I’m a new-ish cellist!) xo
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My parents were violinists so I came by it naturally, but I always loved the sound of the cello and secretly wished that were my instrument. A duet sounds lovely.
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Took me back to my piano lesson days. The scales, the musical vocabulary. My teacher lived with her mother and wore very modest bland clothing, her hair pulled straight back in a bun. Years later, her mother gone, I saw her (or was it a dream?) wearing a modern do and a bright red suit, sitting at a table of two couples, a totally changed woman. She was patient with me, and I still play piano but I prefer chords to scales.
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That’s a great story, Karen!
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Your poem is the perfect companion to your memories!
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It’s wonderful that you wrote to capture the memories of those days, Rose. The house must have been terrific to see. I love “sleeping dogs on rich rugs” & those names!
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I like the musical rhythm in your first lines,
“up the scale
and down the trail
of a melody,”
And the trail of memories that you unfold, thanks Rose!
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Always enjoy an Etheree, Rose. Loved the dogs themed names and your subject of ‘music lessons’ took me back to my own childhood experience with singing lessons. Thanks for the sweet notes.
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Love this! And I love that you experimented with etherees all week!
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This poem brings mind a piano teacher’s home and going there after school. It’s great that you are experimenting with one form which seems a good way, the only way, to understand how it works. Maybe you’ll share more. 🙂
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See Rose? You DO write of more than flowers and birds! This is wonderful! I especially love “music/
drifting throughout the old house/with the sleeping dogs on rich rugs” — I want to be in that house!
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Thanks, Patricia! I didn’t realize until just now how many typos I made! Hope they are all fixed now. I loved the dogs. They were all sweet Shelties, and I believe all (or at least two of them) were related.
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I love the story about your music teacher and the poem.
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