a modern virtuoso
begins to play
haunting leaflets
prance giddily about his strings
a gorgeous blend of culture, skill and shock
spills over ,forth and away
from this Strange Fruit's skein
to such old world symphony he brings
with hair coiffed up like a 70's troll
come to life
displaying manners of Kabuki theater
on a concert stage
his arresting look and superb
talent he mingles from his audience
garish gasps and enchanted sighs
his name is Han bin
he is Mozart's modern day
musical twin
and in his maestro's inner genius
he brings down the veritable house
with but the wave of a thankful audience's
thunderous wind
owning the room's full out joy as his
pitch perfect violin
seduces every last chord's key
to share with the listener
some vestige of Heaven's own harmony...............
(April 25, 2011 524am)
Author's Notes/Comments:
I watched a few days ago a news special on a remarkably talented young violinist named Han Bin ( I may be misspelling his name as I only heard it pronounced not spelled out) He seemed a remarkable young man. Though he dressed very oddly wearing his hair like one of those70's toys called trolls that came with many a different wildly colored hair yet Han Bin wore his pure black with a lot of black eye liner and black lipstick too and he dressed wildly almost like those Kabuki theater actors from Japan but he played that violin most beautifully. He, himself described himself as 'A Strange Fruit' and I knew I would use that self deprecating phrase of his as the title for my poem. For me, he was stunning to listen to as he played his violin but very shocking almost to the point of being ridiculous to look at but I suppose that garishness of his appearance off balanced the remarkable beauty of his craft at playing the violin. I found one could forgive how strange he looked once one was allowed to hear him play. This poem came from those contrasts I encountered in that short news piece.
