Michael's Chronicles: Flight

Michael Thiele is a woodsmith who makes musical instruments and playable furniture. He spends most of his life either in the shop or out on the road buying wood and selling his work at craft shows. In recent years, his travels have begun to inspire his own writing, so he sends me his thoughts.

Monday, March 11
Flight

Sometimes I believe I can fly
Sometimes I know it
I don’t crave the power
I just want the view

Such freedom there is in movement
Never make the mistake
Of standing in place
For too long

Myopia is the condition
No eye doctor can cure
What you see on the outside
Lives in the mind’s eye

Move around to open your view
Breathe life - take it all in
Are we all not in desperate need
Of wonder and amazement?

Grab the wind
Or perhaps just a dream
Let go and fly
I believe you can

I know you can 

Michael's Chronicles: Morning Quiet

Michael Thiele is a woodsmith who makes musical instruments and playable furniture. He spends most of his life either in the shop or out on the road buying wood and selling his work at craft shows. In recent years, his travels have begun to inspire his own writing, so he sends me his thoughts.

Sunday morning
March 3
Naples, Florida

Morning Quiet

There is a morning quiet
With which I am possessed
I lie in the pre- dawn, listening
To its featureless beauty

I stare
It stares back
I blink
It does not
Indifferent, the silence owns me
Is this love unrequited?

The quiet is timeless
Endlessly patient
Like the guard
At Buckingham Palace
Sub Rosa its metier

It knows far more of me 
Than I of it
It is of a beauty
I cannot touch

So I watch in the dark
And listen for its voice
I dare not move
Lest I disturb it

Michael's Chronicles: Atlas

Michael Thiele is a woodsmith who makes musical instruments and playable furniture. He spends most of his life either in the shop or out on the road buying wood and selling his work at craft shows. In recent years, his travels have begun to inspire his own writing, so he sends me his thoughts

Sunday, Jan 28
Stuart Art Festival
Florida
Atlas

It was midafternoon on Sunday when Atlas showed up. His owner said he demanded to visit my booth upon hearing the instruments. I don’t commonly get a visit from a green parrot - in fact, pretty much never. 

When I looked up at the commotion from my front left, there he was with his head cocked sideways and bobbing now and then. Atlas was engaged with the music and throwing parrot sounds back at it. Don’t know if he was talking to himself or to my drum but he was all in. I asked the woman if someone could hold the bird, perch style, near to the instrument. He stared and listened intently and eventually began uttering words, dog barks and whistles, occasionally calling me “sweetie” (must have confused me with someone else……. I am not his sweetie).

His owner told of how he has always liked music and mentioned that he has his own small marimba at home to which he responds as she taps. Is there such a thing as a bird prodigy or am I simply not asking the right question? Doesn’t everyone love music?

Later