Tish Davis
On Making Music
“Well,” he said with equanimity, “you see, in my opinion, there is no point at all about talking about music. I never talk about music . . . you see, I am a musician, not a professor, and I don’t believe that, as regards music, there is the least point in being right. Music does not depend on being right, on having good taste and education and all that.”
“Indeed. Then what does it depend on?”
“On making music, Herr Haller, on making music as well and as much as possible and with all the intensity of which one is capable.”
I pause for reasons unknown and insert the bookmark, noticing only now the tilt of my stationary globe — the way it’s perched on my perfectly polished table. The books in my study maintain their position along a wall of orderly rows as I open the second-story window of my lakefront home.
with vocal cords cerulean blue. . . Lake Erie sending her songs to the shoreline
Note: Excerpt from Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse, Bantam edition, 1969, p.151.
About the Author
Tish Davis lives in Northern Ohio. Her tanka and related forms have appeared in numerous online and print publications. When she isn’t busy with work and grandchildren she enjoys exploring the local parks with her husband and three dogs.