Levy's Accordion Straps
They cost $19.99 at Guitar Center. "These
beautiful one inch leather accordion
straps
from Levy's
exude
style and security." I can imagine
meeting an accordionist who asks
"Are you related to the Levy
who makes those great accordion straps?"
Before today, April 26th, 2018, I would've been
baffled. I would've said "No," but known
zero about what those straps
exude. I happened to discover them
like most discoveries, at least mine--by
accident. In Gregory O'Brien's poem
"A Genealogy" I saw the word spelled "accordian"
and wondered if that's a variant. Googling it
(and not finding "accordian," although O'Brien
is from New Zealand and maybe that's
how it gets spelled there?) I found the Guitar
Center site and decided to educate myself
on accordion prices, never dreaming
I'd also see straps for sale, much less
that my surname and the manufacturer's
would match! Yes, an
exclamation point. What's next? YouTube.
Angelo Di Pippo playing "La Vie En Rose"
on a French accordion, viewed as of today
614,267 times. I can tell his strap is definitely
not a Levy's. One viewer remarked (in broken
English) of Di Pippo "that old man
looks like my father. I am almost
start crying." Whereas Tomas Pressel commented:
"I am searching a known accordion song
i heard in the TV
but dont know the name. Its
a faster music with happy mood. It sounds:
Ta Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti Taa, (Ti) Ta Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti Taa;
Ta Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti Taa, (Ti) Ta Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti Taa. . :)
Anyone Tips?"
Can't say I recognize it.
One more related search and I find this regarding
"Slav way of playing Accordion":
"Tracksuit, Hat, Chain, Accordion. Thats all you need.
A bit of vodka wont hurt."
After this detour I return to O'Brien's poem
a changed man.
Balneal
I look up this adjective: of, or relating
to, a bath, bathing or a bathroom. And I think
of Pierre Bonnard and how
often he painted his wife
stretched out in a bath-
tub (underwater). Balneary, an
alternate adjective, perhaps
works better, Bonnard's
nearness
to her
with just the water
between them. The water
she's
under, which
he
paints
as if it were her
attire. Colors
surround her and she, too, is
composed of so many
hues. She is at
rest
as he
works be-
holding her.
Copenhagen, Late July 2018
On our last day there I
took a train then bus out of the city to
Louisiana, the art museum while Nat
stayed and walked to the zoo, where he saw
hippos
fed by a man who threw
green apples into their mouths.
A crowd gathered to watch him pitch
the fruit so Nat couldn't get close
to take a photo with his cell phone.
I walked around a jammed
Gabriele Munter exhibition then
lingered in the less
crowded
Giacometti rooms.
Nat also saw fresh water
penguins. We joined each other at
the end of the day. The day before
we'd spent at Tivoli Gardens, where I took
hundreds of photos in the aquarium
while Nat wandered.
There were sparrows I wanted to photograph
as they landed in a delicate bush with small
deep red leaves, but I didn't want to disturb
the boy
feeding bits of a roll
to the peacock (which chased the sparrows
up into that bush).
Letter to Ken Bolton
Dear Ken,
There's a crow in your
poem "Italian Chronicles--Birds of Rome"
(actually
more than one) and here's
your lines I recalled
in Copenhagen:
"A handsome kind of crow they have around here--
two-toned, black & a lighter chocolate-charcoal colour."
The two crows I happened
upon
near The Little Mermaid, at
a dock, were also two-
toned, but black and
silver. They walked
upon rounded rocks, dipped
beaks into water and
pecked
at squares the size of half
a postcard
made of what looked
to be asphalt that then they'd pick up
by their
beaks
as I snapped
photos. My son,
kind and at
a distance, sat at a picnic table on the other-
wise deserted dock since
it was early
and no one was there to
climb down into
boats. A swan
and cygnets
dipped heads into the
water through long green
thin ribbons (seaweed?) and
earlier I'd taken better
photos of them, which
was easy (that
is, getting "better"
photos) since
they floated inside or
near
the dark reflected and e-
longated
triangle of a boat's
hull
so visually there's more
going on
and off
and in. I kept
thinking of your two-toned
crow, wanting to show you these
two as they
leapt and flew
inches
above water-
smoothed
rocks
and I
crouched
and focused
while they held
trash
aloft
in silvery-
black beaks.
They cost $19.99 at Guitar Center. "These
beautiful one inch leather accordion
straps
from Levy's
exude
style and security." I can imagine
meeting an accordionist who asks
"Are you related to the Levy
who makes those great accordion straps?"
Before today, April 26th, 2018, I would've been
baffled. I would've said "No," but known
zero about what those straps
exude. I happened to discover them
like most discoveries, at least mine--by
accident. In Gregory O'Brien's poem
"A Genealogy" I saw the word spelled "accordian"
and wondered if that's a variant. Googling it
(and not finding "accordian," although O'Brien
is from New Zealand and maybe that's
how it gets spelled there?) I found the Guitar
Center site and decided to educate myself
on accordion prices, never dreaming
I'd also see straps for sale, much less
that my surname and the manufacturer's
would match! Yes, an
exclamation point. What's next? YouTube.
Angelo Di Pippo playing "La Vie En Rose"
on a French accordion, viewed as of today
614,267 times. I can tell his strap is definitely
not a Levy's. One viewer remarked (in broken
English) of Di Pippo "that old man
looks like my father. I am almost
start crying." Whereas Tomas Pressel commented:
"I am searching a known accordion song
i heard in the TV
but dont know the name. Its
a faster music with happy mood. It sounds:
Ta Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti Taa, (Ti) Ta Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti Taa;
Ta Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti Taa, (Ti) Ta Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti Taa. . :)
Anyone Tips?"
Can't say I recognize it.
One more related search and I find this regarding
"Slav way of playing Accordion":
"Tracksuit, Hat, Chain, Accordion. Thats all you need.
A bit of vodka wont hurt."
After this detour I return to O'Brien's poem
a changed man.
Balneal
I look up this adjective: of, or relating
to, a bath, bathing or a bathroom. And I think
of Pierre Bonnard and how
often he painted his wife
stretched out in a bath-
tub (underwater). Balneary, an
alternate adjective, perhaps
works better, Bonnard's
nearness
to her
with just the water
between them. The water
she's
under, which
he
paints
as if it were her
attire. Colors
surround her and she, too, is
composed of so many
hues. She is at
rest
as he
works be-
holding her.
Copenhagen, Late July 2018
On our last day there I
took a train then bus out of the city to
Louisiana, the art museum while Nat
stayed and walked to the zoo, where he saw
hippos
fed by a man who threw
green apples into their mouths.
A crowd gathered to watch him pitch
the fruit so Nat couldn't get close
to take a photo with his cell phone.
I walked around a jammed
Gabriele Munter exhibition then
lingered in the less
crowded
Giacometti rooms.
Nat also saw fresh water
penguins. We joined each other at
the end of the day. The day before
we'd spent at Tivoli Gardens, where I took
hundreds of photos in the aquarium
while Nat wandered.
There were sparrows I wanted to photograph
as they landed in a delicate bush with small
deep red leaves, but I didn't want to disturb
the boy
feeding bits of a roll
to the peacock (which chased the sparrows
up into that bush).
Letter to Ken Bolton
Dear Ken,
There's a crow in your
poem "Italian Chronicles--Birds of Rome"
(actually
more than one) and here's
your lines I recalled
in Copenhagen:
"A handsome kind of crow they have around here--
two-toned, black & a lighter chocolate-charcoal colour."
The two crows I happened
upon
near The Little Mermaid, at
a dock, were also two-
toned, but black and
silver. They walked
upon rounded rocks, dipped
beaks into water and
pecked
at squares the size of half
a postcard
made of what looked
to be asphalt that then they'd pick up
by their
beaks
as I snapped
photos. My son,
kind and at
a distance, sat at a picnic table on the other-
wise deserted dock since
it was early
and no one was there to
climb down into
boats. A swan
and cygnets
dipped heads into the
water through long green
thin ribbons (seaweed?) and
earlier I'd taken better
photos of them, which
was easy (that
is, getting "better"
photos) since
they floated inside or
near
the dark reflected and e-
longated
triangle of a boat's
hull
so visually there's more
going on
and off
and in. I kept
thinking of your two-toned
crow, wanting to show you these
two as they
leapt and flew
inches
above water-
smoothed
rocks
and I
crouched
and focused
while they held
trash
aloft
in silvery-
black beaks.
John Levy's most recent book of poetry is an e-book, On Its Edge,
Tilted, published by otata's bookshelf in May 2018. Earlier books of poetry
include Among the Consonants (The Elizabeth Press, 1980) and Oblivion, Tyrants,
Crumbs (First Intensity Press, 2008). His poems have appeared in otoliths,
Stride, NOON: journal of the short poem, Shearsman, Origin, CLWN WR, Plucked
Chicken, and other magazines.
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