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The Accompanist
by Jean L. Kreiling
He sits in partial shadow, and behind
the cellist or soprano; not the main
attraction, he performs a well-defined
subsidiary role. He must maintain
not just the tempo, but the dignity
of soloists, by covering their errors,
providing missing pitches, tactfully
indulging egos, hiding his own terrors.
Although he’d say he finds real satisfaction
in playing well and with all due discretion,
he’s tired of minding someone else’s muse.
He craves a life less ruled by skilled reaction,
a chance for frank and unrestrained expression.
Just once, he’d like to snub a tenor’s cues.
Jean L. Kreiling’s poetry has been published in several print and on-line journals, including Contemporary Sonnet, Dogwood, The Evansville Review, The Formalist, and The Pennsylvania Review; she was a finalist for both the 2009 Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award and the 2010 Dogwood Poetry Prize. Her essays on music and poetry have appeared in the academic journals Ars Lyrica and Mosaic.
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