Seven Ways of Looking at Music

First post for my Sophomore year: a poem, written in the style of Wallace Stevens' 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird'.

Seven Ways of Looking at Music

I

Black on white is not animated, but

the sound that comes from black on white

can be breathtaking.

II

Music left unplayed

is a wasted opportunity

to live.

III

A, F, G, E, C...

They are

they can be

So much more than letters.

IV

Both are beautiful: the potential that is in a beginning

And the thrill of making a perfect finish;

An empty staff

And a Symphony.

V

First there is panic as we seem to suddenly forget

what we have spent months perfecting,

though the music is in front of us.

But when our fingers find familiar keys,

we remember.

VI

The silence just before we begin

the anticipation

Can be more thrilling than the music.

VII

When I look at the notes, I see more than music:
I see memories.

Essential Question Response: 'If'

[IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

I love this poem. It's really inspiring, and I like to read it if I'm feel like procrastinating or slacking-- it makes me feel productive and all 'Carpe Diem'-y. So this kinda sorta maybe fits into the essential question 'what is my future?' Because it makes... my... future... better...? By inspiring me? Yeah OK that works. Do not question my logic!!