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Poems Used in IDL Classes

Sometimes people who hear me read poems in my IDL programming class would like copies. Poems are copyrighted, of course, and I have unknowingly violated that copyright by reproducing those poems here in the past. My sincerest apologies to the authors and publishers whose rights I have trampled on. As an author, I should have known better.

My special thanks to Jared Carter, whose wonderful poem "Improvisation" is one of my favorites, for pointing out my obligations in this regard.

What you will find here are those poems I have received permission to represent here. I am in the process of contacting other authors and publishers to ask their permission, too.

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Improvisation

To improvise, first let your fingers stray
across the keys like travelers in snow:
each time you start, expect to lose your way.

You'll find no staff to lean on, none to play
among the drifts the wind has left in rows.
To improvise, first let your fingers stray

beyond the path. Give up the need to say
which way is right, or what the dark stones show;
they will show nothing till you lose your way.

And what the stillness keeps, do not betray;
the one who listens is the one who knows.
To improvise, first let your fingers stray;

out over emptiness is where things weigh
the least. Go there, believe a current flows
each time you start, expect to lose your way.

Risk is the pilgrimage that cannot stay;
the keys grow silent in their smooth repose.
To improvise, first let your fingers stray.
Each time you start, expect to lose your way.

From Les Barricades Mystérieuses. Copyright © 1987 by the
Modern Poetry Association and reproduced by permission of Jared Carter.
Mr. Carter's books can be ordered from Amazon.com.

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Copyright © 1997-2001 David W. Fanning
Last Updated 6 May 2001