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Bach Was Not a Mathematician (Bela Siki)

They followed
from school to school 
(Zen was where their master taught)
not because he played piano 
but because he could read

Other teachers were workmen
who's egos huffed 
and snorted out loud
They saw a white page 
of black spots 
They banged out on a piano, 
sounding to him like a typewriter  

When he looked at the page 
he saw the colors of notes  
Not line after line 
of concerto assembly plans 
but a painted page that he 
stroked life from 
into the keys

The hammers seemed brushes
his lips a straight line 
his body still as
every fleck of emotion precisely 
unharnessed itself in his fingers
Zen Piano

He never forgot
Bach was not a mathematician
Bach was Picasso 
before Pablo learned Jazz

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