I really like the first half of this, but the second half is too abstract for me to understand or get any feeling out of it. Care to explain to meaning of the piece?

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"Passion. . .it drives some
to distraction, some to despair, some to vengeance. It drives some to murder and others to madness"-Angel

This is excellent, Michael. I love the striking "I spasm / like a broken wasp, like a headless / samurai."

The second half of the piece is well developed and the symbolism in the last stanza can be read on several different levels, which is wonderful.

It sounds to me as if the persona speaking the poem is meeting up with a former girlfriend whom he used to entertain by playing the piano. His playing used to "make he guts vibrate", but now he's painfully aware that he's the only one so affected when he plays for her. This "nothing left of life" is his no longer being able to move her as he once was able. He is lonely and awkward in her presence, and so what once was a mutual vibration of the gut is now for him nothing more than a "spasm". He feels ridiculous and helpless, "like a broken wasp, like a headless samurai."

Yet he still feels something for her. His opening would have been worse if he felt nothing at all. This feeling is what continues to motivate him to "find the key", and without this motivation to keep practicing and to develop his skills at improvisation, life for him would cease.

Am I on the right track?

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Pave the bay. Save the males.

I wrote "make he guts vibrate" (sic), but I meant to write "make [her] guts vibrate".

Mea maxima culpa.

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Pave the bay. Save the males.

I can feel the longing in this piece. Some loves last forever. Very well written. No crits.

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No need to thank me for "Faves" or Watches; however, if you feel the need, please do so in my Shoutbox.

Thank you.

The second half is a series of double- and triple-entendres, riffing on writing, music and sex.

I’m glad to hear your dad is doing better.

~M

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I’m glad you enjoyed it and were able to follow it, Christian.

~M

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The truth is a lot simpler, I think. I’m not a musician, I’m a writer. I’m likening the act of writing to playing music.

~Michael

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I’m glad. It feels right to me, but I posted it soon after I finished it (to get it off my mind), so I’m still a bit unsure.

~M

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