Too Fast for Me!  A children's rhyming poem and
composition for solo piano


(fragment from the piano score)

Too Fast for Me!

Hemi - demi - semi - quaver,
That's too fast for me!

In math I've learned to divide in half,
That's as easy as pie!

I do my best not to miss a rest
And count in 2's and 3's!

Slow to fast and faster yet,
The sound soars up to the sky!

   Take a whole note.
   That's real long.

   Cut it in half.
   That can't be wrong!

   Divide it in 2. That's
   a quarter of the whole.
   You can put it your pocket
   If it doesn't have a hole!

   Now divide that in half. Then
   again and again and again.
   Sooner or later
   It's a race you can't win!

Hemi - demi - semi - quaver,
That's too fast for me!

I do my best, tho' it's not a test,
to sing and play with glee!

Round and around the counting goes,
This is where it stops as everbody knows!

And that's enough thinking for me!