“Practice” by Alison Hicks
The small precision:
word matched to moment,
finger placed squarely on the string,
the pitch containing not only itself,
but itself halved, and that halved, and again.
Ratios that move the small bones of the ear
translate resonance to the brain.
Lives of sloppy shifts, wrong notes,
mistakes in tonality.
Late at night in the living room,
try to make up for this.
In your notebook, on the instrument, with a partner,
practice harmony, or necessary dissonance,
half-step leading tones.
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The waves of language, of words, are irresistible. They beckon us to venture out through the surf, to trust our knowledge, our skill, our instinct, our craft, as we ride the waves. — Alison Hicks
Alison Hicks Artist Statement:
Alison Hicks was awarded the 2021 Birdy Prize from Meadowlark Press for Knowing Is a Branching Trail. Previous collections are You Who Took the Boat Out and Kiss, a chapbook Falling Dreams, and a novella Love: A Story of Images. Her work has appeared in Eclipse, Gargoyle, Permafrost, and Poet Lore. She was finalist for the 2021 Beullah Rose prize from Smartish Pace, an Editor’s Choice selection for the 2024 Philadelphia Stories National Poetry Prize, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Green Hills Literary Lantern, Quartet Journal, and Nude Bruce Review. She is founder of Greater Philadelphia Wordshop Studio, which offers community-based writing workshops.
