I wonder how the world would be
if thirty years ago,
instead of playing thankless gigs,
a soundbyte of a show
I’d done when merely seventeen
(and better then, than now)
would have been made, and hit the ‘net
(God knows exactly how),
gone viral, and been seen worldwide.
Would I have been star?
I wonder, would I then have bothered
LEARNING the guitar?
By that, I mean becoming part,
just part, of what it means
to gain through time some mastery,
by living in between
the wanting and the knowing how,
the skill and the desire,
each note both torture and caress,
both kindling and the fire.
True art is more a crucible
where souls are bent and forged,
than an exciting carnival
where egos are engorged.
I wonder now, when looking back,
on things that could have been;
and thank the gods for then and now,
and the time in between.
What good would I be if back then
I’d caught on like a flame?
I would have not learned anything,
and been, today, just lame.
03 MAY 2011
