~~~~~~~~~~

Play the tune again: not watching
Your fingering, but forgetting, letting flow
The sound till it surrounds you.
Do not count or even think. Let go.

Play the tune again: but try to be
Nobody, nothing, as though the pace
Of the sound were your heart beating, as though
The music were your face.

Play the tune again, It should be easier
To think less every time of the notes, of the measure.
It is all an arrangement of silence. Be silent, and then
Play it for your pleasure.

Play the tune again; and this time, when it ends,
Do not ask me what I think. Feel what is happening
Strangely in the room as the sounds glooms over
You, me, everything.

Now,
Play the tune again.

- Alastair Reid