Like Gershwins

I edited this poem based on feedback from Sel Whiteley, whose helpful review I seem to have somehow accidentally removed from the page!

I want imaginary deadlines
to meet them like Ira and George
To stay up all night in a quiet room
With you
Like the Gershwins

Want to sit with only two pads of paper and a bottle of wine
between us like a barrier in time
Want a box of pencils just sharpened
Lead on the tips of my fingers and the edges of my hands
Spreading as the world is darkened

- Like fruit inside a paper bag
We would ripen
Like pianists playing double hands
This Rhapsody would not be Blue
Because silence is more creative
If I’m silent here with you

I want to reach into the empty air
And find your genius resting there
I want to write the lyrics
For your syncopated chicken-scratch
Want to erase your dotted line
Where art and life detach

I want to search for phrases on the ceiling
Browse the selections you’ve rejected
And break the pattern of my beating heart
With the sounds that you’ve perfected
I want to bounce ideas off the whites of your eyes
Find inspiration in your clever disguise

I’m an American in Paris
still stateside
and I’ve got Rhythm
but you’ve got blues
So whose
To say
The kind of art we could create?

I would share my notebooks with you
You could read every page - except
The ones I’ve written on
Those are where my heart is kept

But I will give you every word on my blank pages
The unwritten potential midnight engages
And I would share a spine with you on library shelves
The result of magic deadlines we created for ourselves

Reviews

[sherwin]

Very good piece, shows talent and thoughtfulness.

[Emily B]

oh, wow! it's gorgeous and rhythmic and lovely,, so glad to come here today

[Joel M Frye]

You have written such a rhapsodic poem that I think Ira would blush. You've got plenty of talent...and talent's plenty for me. ;) (Sorry...couldn't resist.) Especially liked the image "I want to reach into the empty air / And find your genius resting there". As a songwriter myself, I can say you've captured the synergy of two like creative minds on a roll. Thank you for an excellent write, Jessica.

[anne p. murray- LadeeAn..]

Such an Ingenious piece of writing! Skillfully and artistically written. The wording is supurb! I liked every word. You write with such a creative flair. I particularily liked the bottom two lines.
"And I would share a spine with you on library shelves
The result of magic deadlines we created for ourselves"
Such imagination. yummy