The "Professor"

Laura hosts Meeting the Bar in the dVerse Poets Pub .. inviting us to write an epistolary letter / poem in verse or prose form.

 

Dear Professor Franklin C Kreider,

Beloved Director, CHS High School Band: 

You are most deserving of my everlasting gratitude 

in 1955, at the tender age of fourteen, I entered high school 

an aspiring "first chair" flautist in the nationally acclaimed

Collinsville Illinois High School Band.

Three national championships and barred from National competition

so what did you do, took our show on the road

Niagara Falls, Pikes Peak, a new destination each Spring

four Greyhound Busses packed with kids, chaperones, instruments 

concert venues, standing ovations, encores, quite the head rush.

Those tours taught me more than you could know

how to quell stage fright, how to feel joy in performing 

an appreciation for music in all its myriad forms

you made me a better musician, encouraged my talent, believed in me

and yes, made my dream of playing "first chair flute" come true.

I'm old now, Professor Kreider, as were you when first we met

my embouchure is compromised, muscle tone has diminished 

hitting high notes close to impossible 

something I could never have imagined as a teen.

I am blessed with countless memories .. musicians who are still friends 

endless stories .. shared with my children and grandchildren

actually .. anyone willing to listen ..  

YOU, Dear Professor, made that possible.

Fondly, 

Your favorite flautist 

Helen Louise Klenke 

[ Dehner today ]