Pressing Pause for Poetry: David Lee Garrison

Since I'm now back in DC for the weekend (until Sunday night, when I leave again for ATL), it's only appropriate to share a DC-inspired poem. I love this poem by David Lee Garrison--I so often see performers in or around the metro, but just like the people in this poem, am usually in too much of a hurry to stop and listen, or to stop and drop money into their instrument cases. This poem speaks about an interesting experiment by The Washington Post and points out our inability to stop and recognize beauty or talent in our busy, daily lives...

So press pause and enjoy!

---

Bach in the DC Subway

As an experiment,
The Washington Post
asked a concert violinist—
wearing jeans, tennis shoes,
and a baseball cap--
to stand near a trash can
at rush hour in the subway
and play Bach
on a Stradivarius.
Partita No. 2 in D Minor
called out to commuters
like an ocean to waves,
sang to the station
about why we should bother
to live.
 
A thousand people
streamed by. Seven of them
paused for a minute or so
and thirty-two dollars floated
into the open violin case.
A café hostess who drifted
over to the open door
each time she was free
said later that Bach
gave her peace,
and all the children,
all of them,
waded into the music
as if it were water,
listening until they had to be
rescued by parents
who had somewhere else to go.


Great poem, yes? Maybe this will remind us all to pause the next time that we pass by a street performer and truly listen to what they're sharing (not that they're all concert musicians, but you never know!)...

And with that, I'm off to enjoy a beautiful saturday staycation by the pool :)

Namaste!
Mary Catherine