Tobi Alfier - A One And A Two

How do you feel about music when you’re writing? Does it soothe you into a mood where you can coax words easily onto the paper? Does it drive you nuts?

Do you have specific writing music? Or do you put on noise-cancelling headphones and pray your writing coffee shop isn’t playing show tunes?

I cannot listen to music while writing. I have no problem with conversations going on around me, but songs? I either start singing them or listening to them. Or writing about them.

I love Joni Mitchell, but put her on? My poem changes:

The Blind Woman Hears Music as She Reads Her Love’s Face

                                    You are in my blood like holy wine-

                                                JoniMitchell, “A Case of You”

She knows when dim light throws shadows across them

she’ll wake from a dream of color as he grasps her hand,

brings it toward his face. He’ll sleep deeply those last few minutes

as the hedgehogs of his bristles pleasingly scratch her knuckles.

She knows by his breath-beat when he wakes, turns her hand around,

cups his face toward hers to kiss him with every good morning

of promise, quiet and simple. The coffee pot churns

in the kitchen to verify this, their morning truth.

She adores that face, knows in an instant

he will do a quick shave, comfort for him,

sadness for her. Tomorrow this will happen again,

so the sadness is bittersweet, and short-lasting.

This is a Joni Mitchell moment, as are the times he

quietly lets her read his face, the way he reads

his beloved books. Her supple fingertips savor a start

at eyebrows bold, thick brushes for sun protection.

His nose compass-straight tells of an unaffected adolescence,

his lips, the upper hidden under an enviable mustache,

the lower plump and delicious to bite, to gently suck,

together they aid the formation of a voice masculine and true. 

She checks the pirate scar on the side of his neck,

and other scars older, well-healed, hardened to touch,

still felt and remembered by them both,

her by the stories he’s told her.

She knows his “devils and his deeds” as surely

as she has fingerprints. As surely as she heard

his whispers. She could most definitely drink

a case of him and still be on her feet, no question.

(previously published in Suisun Valley Review)

I have no idea what I was writing before that. Quite honestly I don’t care. But it is sabotage in a way, and I can’t write all my poems about songs. So even though I like everything from Dire Straits to Kugleplex, and have an affinity for instrumental video game music, I keep my speakers off and do not have an iPod.

Below – some music I love but cannot write to. It does cheer me up so maybe that means my poems aren’t all depressing. I could argue that’s a good thing.

My husband is just the opposite. His go-to writing music is Hearts of Space. It’s at www.hos.com  The artists he primarily listens to are Steve Roach, Harold Budd, Marconi Union, Constance Demby and Loscil. The type of music goes by several names, but it’s usually called ambient atmospheric music, or soundscapes, and he especially loves the haunting pieces.

He can, and often does, write all day to it. I can read, and I can edit, but I cannot write. How do you like to write? With music, or without?

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Tobi Alfier's most recent collection of poetry is Somewhere, Anywhere, Doesn't Matter Where. She is also co-editor with Jeff Alfier of the San Pedro River Review. Don't miss Tobi's columns on the craft of poetry: insert your email address in the "Follow By Email" box to the right of this article and you'll be notified every time a new article appears.