Joy for What I Learned

The prompt from NapoWriMo for Day 22 took me back to a time when I learned to play the flute.

Having come from a rural one-room schoolhouse with few resources and moving to a small town highschool as a 7^th grader, I arrived without any musical background. The kids at the “city” school started music in 5^th grade, so my band director (if only I remembered his name) was kind enough to try to bring me up to speed along with another student who learned the French Horn! That band director surely has received his reward in heaven!

In any case, below is the prompt and my poem for Day 22 of the poem-a-day challenge, “Joy for What I Learned.”

Also, I highly recommend you read Diane Wakoski’s poem that is embedded within the prompt, too.  It is lovely!

Prompt: “In her poem, Thanking My Mother for Piano Lessons, Diane Wakoski is far more grateful than I ever managed to be, describing the act of playing as a “relief” from loneliness and worry, and as enlarging her life with something beautiful. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem about something you’ve done – whether it’s music lessons, or playing soccer, crocheting, or fishing, or learning how to change a tire – that gave you a similar kind of satisfaction, and perhaps still does.”

Joy for What I Learned

In gratitude for having learned to play the notes on this silver

miracle, a tube with keys & springs & holes—a flute.   

My notes carry on the wind, reach the wren & chickadee who join

in when I play my tunes.  Pastoral silver sound travels far to

neighbors ‘round & curious avians who dip and flutter. When my

lips pull embouchure & fingers tap the keys just right, trills like

crystal ring the air.  Up and down the scales, a half century or

more, still bringing joy to me and the birds above. When my breath &

fingers bring to life the anthem of Ukraine, I send sound waves on

prayers across the seas to the other side of the world.

                        Jacquelyn Markham ©2025 (April 22)

You can listen to the Ukrainian anthem and download the flute sheet music (courtesy of flutetunes.com)

And below, a moving rendition of the Ukrainian National Anthem by students at Berklee College of Music.