If I say “Chopsticks” is
my favorite piano piece
will you think I am being
facetious or simply
and incredibly stupid about
how much great piano music
is out there that I must have heard
at some point and yet here I am
championing something
almost anyone with fingers
and a memory of hearing it
can play with little thought
once they are shown where
to begin? If I tell you
that the reason I claim
such a thing is for
that precise reason —
how accessible it is and
how it connects so easily and
how much delight one may see
in the eyes of a new player
of any age — how the sound of it
might make even a seasoned pianist
ever so slightly nostalgic
for their earliest days upon
the ivories — would you think
I am being facetious then
even as your own fingers
begin to twitch and beg you
to let them try?
December 6, 2021
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