User:Eric Kvaalen/The Piano

Does anyone know who wrote this poem? And when? I came across it around 1970. The link shows that it was used in the Equality of Educational Opportunity Study of 1966 but it doesn't give the author.

The Piano

You touched the piano, And the notes were all soft and clear. Clear were the “notes as they fell from your cool fingers, And the tune was right, and the time, and they praised it and called it good; For the notes were clear and soft, water in a woodland stream, grass in green meadows. They praised you, for the notes were soft. And I played. There was a storm in my heart; my heart was wind-tossed and free, and I cried aloud to the wind and the rain and the sea; And the notes were wrong, but I did not care, And the time was my own, but I did not care, For I was the storm and the sea and the wind. For I was the storm. And when it was over, and the last wave had lashed the bleak cliffs, and the last roll of thunder had passed, I knew the meaning of the song. So shall it be forever. You will touch life with cool fingers, and the notes will be woodland streams and green grass, and they will praise-you, for your notes will be soft. But I shall have the storm in my heart, and the wind, and the sea, And the notes will be wrong, but I shall not care; And the time will be my own, but I shall not care, For I-oh, I shall be the storm! And when it is over, and the last waves have lashed the bleak cliffs, and the last roll of thunder has passed, I shall know the meaning of the song!

My mother copied this poem into her notebook after taking a standardized achievement test of some kind in 8th grade in 1959 or 1960, in Dehesa (near El Cajon), California.