Penultimate

Practicing is Courting

The artist and the notes exploring each other

If awkwardly, sometimes.

Stumbling through phrases to see where there’s a connection

And where work is needed.

 

Rehearsals bring support

A kind of group date (or game night perhaps)

Where couples lean on friends

Each still nurturing their own relationships.

But knowing help is there.

 

The cycle then restarts

Practices delve deeper, more personal, and more raw.

A bond is cemented.

And rehearsals become more about how friends interact.

As they move to the goal

 

Publicly declaring

In front of the witnesses and friends,

What they’ve nurtured and grown.

And after the public pomp and circumstance:

Fabulous ecstasy.

 

…Which to some is the point

That explosion of applause is why they even perform.

Focusing on the thrill.

Letting it fill them as they stand and take their bow

They got what they came for.

 

That’s not THE moment though.

A deeper joy: the last note still ringing, baton still in the air.

That anticipation.

The musician looks deeply into the eyes of the music

And sighs, surrendering.