Beethoven's 14th-the Moonlight Sonata

C sharp minor. A lovely key.

I savor the opening chord. It rings

For a moment, then is drowned in the arpeggio

Of the next measure. Moving on.

Lake Lucerne shines in the moonlight, seeming to draw from the music

And envelope it in a curtain of rippling water.

The emerald-tinged surface gleams, happy with me.

Flowing smoothly through the first page. I'm floating. Then,

With a zealous mania, I pound a wrong note-

forte.

The moonlight fluctuates, unsure of itself.

Backing up correcting, I move on. C sharp diminished.

Too late. I am cast into a jaundice, no longer entranced.

I'm stumbling. The chords are like foreign ground, unfamiliar under my fingers, until

It repeats. The same smooth measures I know and know well.

In my head, the moonlight shines clear and bright.

Brighter and brighter as I get softer and softer

The final pianissimo rings quietly in the moonlight,

The moonlight that smooths all the rough edges.